Everyone knows that vegetables that undergo frost, after defrosting, retain almost all vitamins, the original color and even the smell. And blanching is what? And why is it needed? Many masters still torment this question.
So, blanching is an operation that involves preparing the products for later processing. Vegetables, berries are usually processed with steep boiling water, just hot water or even steam. What is this for?
The fact is that blanching is a kind of help for the further use of products. When heat treatment of all tissues air is removed, microorganisms are destroyed, some enzymes are destroyed. Most often this is done with vegetables that you want to keep.
So, blanching a tomato is as follows. On each tomato you must first make an incision cross-shaped. However, it should not be deep, so as not to cut the tomato itself. Try to touch only the skin. Boil the kettle and pour the prepared vegetables with boiling water. They must be completely submerged in water! If you plan to use tomatoes for soup, then keep them in boiling water for five minutes; For salad blanching time is reduced to one minute. As you can see, everything is quite simple. Some advise to add salt to boiling water or citric acid, but this is already a matter of taste. Now it remains only to peel off the skin (it will easily come down) and take out the seeds. Get excellent blanks for different dishes.
Can I blanch the berries?
Yes, you can. Blanching is an almost universal process. The main difference from the processing of vegetables is that the berries should only be lightly smeared with steam, and not boiled. And even more so keep in it. You can take a usual colander, pour in it pure berries and hold them a little over the pot with hot water. This is blanching berries. If they have a delicate peel, the treatment time is one minute. But as for, for example, cherries, you can steam it for about three minutes.
A little more about blanching
The term came to us from France. Now, not only vegetables and berries are blanched, but also fish, and even greens. What are the objectives of this process? First, the aesthetic side. Vegetables should retain a pleasant color. This is especially important for restaurants and cafes. But the meat after such processing becomes, on the contrary, white. As already mentioned, heat treatment helps the skin to descend easily from the fetus. At the same time, all bitterness and unpleasant odors are removed, if any. As for berries, the removal of oxygen leads to the fact that the vitamins in them remain intact. If you are not a fan of asparagus or spinach, then try to zablanchiruyut these products. Their taste will improve significantly. Knowledgeable landladies have long resorted to this trick to train the family in a healthy diet. It is only necessary to take into account the properties of the product and to select the optimum processing time. Apricots are blanched for forty seconds, but cabbage can be processed for up to six minutes.