What does it mean to blanch something?
What does it mean to blanch something?
To blanch means to plunge food into boiling water for a very short amount of time. Most blanched foods are immediately rinsed in icy bath to stop the cooking process (this is known as "refreshing" or "shocking"). Blanching raw vegetables will brighten the color while maintaining a crisp, barely-cooked texture and flavor. Blanching also helps loosen the skin of tomatoes or stone fruit for peeling.
Recipe: Blanched And Buttered Brussels Sprouts (Cookthink)
Recipe: Blanched Asparagus With Vinaigrette (Cookthink)
Do I need to blanch bacon before using it in a recipe?
Do I need to blanch bacon before using it in a recipe?
It depends on how you want the finished dish to taste.
If you want a salty, smoky flavor in the finished dish, then you shouldn't blanch the bacon. (Do be careful though if the recipe calls for additional salt.) If you want the pork flavor of the bacon to come through but are concerned that its smokiness will overwhelm the other flavors, you should blanch the bacon before using it in the recipe.
To blanch bacon, put it in a saucepan and cover it (by 3 inches) with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the pan, rinse the bacon in cold water and then pat it dry with paper towel.
Reference: What does it mean to blanch something? (Cookthink)
Reference: What does it mean for bacon to render its fat? (Cookthink)
Recipe: Avocado With Bacon Vinaigrette (Cookthink)
Recipe: Chicken Madeira And Macaroni Soup (hogwash)
Recipe: Pork Paté With Port And Hazelnuts (Traveler's Lunchbox)
A cardoon is a vegetable, also known as the artichoke thistle, that looks a bit like celery on a bad day and has a flavor reminiscent of artichoke hearts and salsify.
Popular in Italy, Spain and France, the cardoon is related to the Globe artichoke. An invasive, frost-sensitive plant that needs a lot of space, the cardoon grows as a weed in the Argentine pampas, California and Australia.
Cardoons can be baked, braised or boiled, and it's often a good idea to blanch them for up to 30 minutes before using them. (Beware of sneaky thistles that may be lurking on the outer stalks -- it's best to peel the outside a bit.)
High in sodium, cardoons are nevertheless recognized as a good source of potassium, calcium and iron. Artichoke oil, which is similar to sunflower or safflower oil, can be extracted from cardoon seeds. It is currently being studied and tested for its biofuel potential.
Prepping pearl onions requires a bit of effort, but will make a difference in soups and stews or as a side dish when roasted, braised or glazed.
Start by bringing a saucepan of water to a boil (for blanching the onions). Next, prepare an ice bath -- just a large bowl with a quart of water and 1 cup of ice cubes -- that you will use to cool down the onions after blanching.
Cut off the root end of each pearl onion -- don't cut too much off, maybe 1/16 of an inch. Blanching will loosen the skins and they'll slip off easily.
Blanch the pearl onions by boiling them in water for 1 to 2 minutes until their skins look bubbly and translucent.
With a slotted spoon, remove them to the ice bath so that they stop cooking and become cool enough to peel.
Let them cool for 5 minutes in the ice bath, or until they're cool enough to handle.
Now just slip their skins off.
Since you've already removed the root, the skins will be loose and easy to peel off.
Are Brussels sprouts from Brussels?
Are Brussels sprouts from Brussels?
Yes and no.
Brussels sprouts do in fact get their name from the capital of Belgium, where they've been a popular crop for more than 400 years and were cultivated on a large scale for the first time. Brussels sprouts are considered a Wild Cabbage (like broccoli and cauliflower), and most of these can be traced back to central Asia.
Brussels sprouts in Europe, most of which come from Germany, tend to be much smaller than their American cousins. If you live in the U.S., it's most likely that the little cabbages you'll be eating tonight were grown in California.
First, slice an "x" across the blossom end of the tomatoes; this will help the skin to peel off in a regular fashion.
Next, plunge the tomatoes into barely boiling water, stem-side down, for 30 seconds.
Turn the tomatoes once so that they heat evenly, allowing the tomato's skin to pull off in large strips.
Using tongs, move the tomatoes to a bowl of ice-water to stop the cooking; the tomatoes will be very hot to the touch, but the interior flesh will not be cooked.
When the tomatoes have cooled -- after 3 to 5 minutes -- remove them from the ice bath, pat them dry with a paper towel and gently peel the cooked skin off along the "x" where the skin has naturally split.
Next, with sharp knife, cut the tomato into quarters and remove the seeds, being sure to cut away the core on the stem end.
Once the seeds and skin have been removed, you're left with tomato flesh petals that can be used to hold dollops of tuna or vegetable salad, or diced and added to soups, salads and sauces.
Many people think that sweetbreads are culinary code for calves' brains.
But the term sweetbreads is actually a benign-sounding pseudonym for the paired thymus glands and pancreas of milk-fed veal or calves. (You can also find inferior pork or lamb sweetbreads if you look hard enough.) The rounder pancreas gland near the heart is more prized than the tubular thymus throat gland. The pancreas gland has a more delicate flavor and smoother texture.
If you're shopping for sweetbreads, be sure that they're still snow white, fleshy and firm to the touch. Rinse them in several changes of acidulated water before using. Once you get them home, don't keep them for more than 24 hours in the refrigerator. Sweetbreads are normally blanched, refreshed in cold water and cooled before being braised, poached, sautéed, fried, broiled or blended into a soufflé, pâté or filling.
