The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 499

vegetables should be cooked with the lid off, to encourage
the partial evaporation of any of these acidic compounds.
Ah,you’rethinkingtoyourself,ifacidistheenemyofgreen
vegetables,whynotaddapinchofbakingsodatothewater
tokeepthembrightandgreen?Andyou’dberight—baking
so d adoes keep vegetables greener. Unfortunately, it also
hastens the breakdown of their cells, causing them to turn
mushywhileimpartingasoapyaftertaste.

Beanscookedinplainwater,acidicwater,andbakingsoda
water.
Seems like in this case, the pro-big-potters are right. It’s
the only way to achieve vegetables that are simultaneously
brightgreenandtender-crisp.
Shocking!


Once your vegetables are cooked perfectly, the question
remainingishowtopreventthemfromovercooking.Atthe
restaurants I’ve worked in, we’d plunge them into a huge
bowl of ice water and leave them there until completely
chilled. But in my home kitchen, I tested the ice-water
method side by side with two other methods: running the
drainedvegetablesundercooltapwaterandsimplyleaving
them in a bowl at room temperature. Both the ice-water
vegetables and the cool-running-water veg came out
identically,soclearlytheiceisoverkill—coldwaterwilldo
just fine. Surprisingly though, it turned out that even when
the vegetables are simply placed in a bowl and left on the
counter, the ones around the edges lose heat to the air fast
enough to prevent overcooking. It’s only the vegetables in

thecenterthatendupmushyanddarkgreen.So,aslongas
you spread the vegetables out in a single layer—say, on a
rimmed baking sheet—you don’t even really need the cold
water. I still use it just for the sake of convenience, but it’s
goodtoknowthisinapinch.
Whatever cooling method you use, it is of vital
importance that you dry your vegetables in a salad spinner
orwithacleankitchentowelbeforeaddingthemtoasalad.
Thatis,unlessyoulikewatered-downsalad.

BLANCHING IS the gateway to so much more
thankeepinggreenvegetablesgreen,however.Incommon
cook’sparlance,blanchingistheactofdroppingvegetables
into a large pot of boiling salted water and lightly cooking
them. Most often, the vegetables are then used in another
recipe, whether it’s sweet peas that are lightly blanched in