What is blanching food
The water should return to boiling within 1 minute, or you are using too much vegetable for the amount of boiling water. Start counting blanching time as soon as the water returns to a boil. Keep heat high for the time given in the directions for the vegetable you are freezing. Heating in steam is recommended for a few vegetables. For broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and winter squash, both steaming and boiling are satisfactory methods. To steam, use a pot with a tight lid and a basket that holds the food at least three inches above the bottom of the pot.
Put an inch or two of water in the pot and bring the water to a boil. Put the vegetables in the basket in a single layer so that steam reaches all parts quickly. Cover the pot and keep heat high. Start counting steaming time as soon as the lid is on. See steam blanching times recommended for the vegetables listed below. Microwave blanching may not be effective, since research shows that some enzymes may not be inactivated. This could result in off-flavors and loss of texture and color. Otherwise, blanched food is still considered raw.
The key with shocking is that you don't want to let the food sit in the ice water for too long, or it will start to absorb water and become soggy.
What you want to do instead is just let it chill until the food is no longer warm, then drain it thoroughly and either store it or set it aside for whatever the next step is.
You don't need to get it fully cold all the way through, but it shouldn't be warm to the touch. As we said, blanching softens vegetables and it also intensifies their colors. Whereas long boiling will turn green vegetables like asparagus or green beans a drab olive color, 30 seconds of blanching will turn them a bright vivid green. The same is true for the orange color of carrots.
Freezing can likewise cause the colors of veggies to turn drab, so blanching is a common step as a preliminary to freezing. Vegetables such as green beans are often blanched in order to enhance their natural green color, as well as softening them. The reason being, high-heat cooking methods involve short cooking times, which isn't always enough to soften firm vegetables like carrots and broccoli.
On the other hand, cooking them longer will tend to overcook the other items in the pan. The solution: blanch the firmer vegetables separately, then add them to the pan with the other items. A similar case is when we're adding raw veggies to a salad.
Blanching and shocking is a good technique to use for vegetables that will be featured in salads. They're softened just enough so that you can eat them more or less raw, but they won't be excessively difficult to chew.
And it also brightens the colors, making for a more visually appealing salad. Another use for blanching is to help loosen the skins on tomatoes, peaches, and other foods. If you're making your own marzipan , for instance, you'd need to blanch the almonds to remove their skins first.
Blanching also comes into play when preparing white stocks such as chicken or veal stock, with the bones being blanched beforehand in order to rid them of impurities.
Blanching is a process where food is exposed to boiling water or steam for a brief period and then quickly placed in ice water to prevent it from cooking all the way through. The amount of time needed to blanch different vegetables varies. And, it is important to follow the recommended times for specific vegetable because over-blanching leads to a loss of flavor, color and nutrients, whereas under-blanching can increase enzyme activity.
Check the blanching chart below for the appropriate blanching times. There are two major steps involved in blanching foods. First, the vegetables must be submerged in boiling water. Second, they must be cooled quickly. For every pound of vegetables, use at least one gallon of water to blanch them in. Leafy green vegetables require twice as much water — so two gallons of water for every one pound of leafy green.
Before blanching, wash vegetables and remove the peels or skins if desired.