Blanching and steaming are both forms of light cooking that use very hot water to preserve more nutrients than other, more intensive cooking techniques. In a side-by-side study of boiled and steamed veggies, boiled greens lost 40% of their folate (B9) and 45% of their vitamin C. Steamed greens only lost 15% of each, in stark contrast. Blanching is a technique used to preserve the colour, flavour, and texture of delicate foods like young asparagus and fresh peas as well as fresh foods that are being frozen or stored. Blanching can help clean it and halt the growth of bacteria. Now that you are aware of the purposes and advantages of these cooking techniques, let's address the topic, what exactly is blanching?
Steaming
The steaming procedure is presumably already familiar to you. You insert a bamboo steamer or metal basket into a saucepan that has some water bubbling up at the bottom. Add your vegetables, secure the cover, and check back in a few minutes for perfectly cooked vegetables that are still full of flavour and nutrients. Although it can be tempting to believe that adding more water helps hasten the process, you should allow one to two inches between the water line and the basket's bottom. To give your vegetables more flavour, you may also have some fun by adding aromatics like fresh garlic, ginger, or rosemary to the steamer.
The trick that requires the most tweaking is this one: Rice, crepes, dumplings, fish wrapped in banana leaves, broccoli florets, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, wedges, leftovers in a heat-proof container, or any other food, should be placed in a metal basket or bamboo tray that fits inside the pot but is raised above the water. a heat-resistant receptacle for leftovers that fits within a pot but is raised above the water, such as a metal basket or bamboo tray. Enclose the entire device. Once you have everything set up, steaming is quick (you may recall from high school science class, steam is hotter than water), flexible (you can cook an entire meal at once by adding later-cooking ingredients), and water-efficient (you don't need to fill a whole pot), all while preserving nutrients and flavours.
Blanching
Blanching is the technique of putting something you've boiled into an ice bath to stop the cooking and maintain the colour and texture. This is useful for preserving the sweet freshness of priceless foods like first-of-season peas or asparagus as well as removing the sticky skins from tomatoes, peaches, pearl onions, even almonds and hazelnuts.
However, blanching is typically not necessarily required! Skip the ice bath unless you're cooking for the Queen or a crush: It is sufficient to rinse the vegetables in cold water in a colander, lay them out, and let them cool. In order to preserve delicate flavours or remove challenging skins from foods like almonds, peaches, or tomatoes, blanching (and the accompanying ice bath) should only be used in special circumstances. In normal conditions, separation and cold sink water should be enough to stop the cooking.
