The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 500

salted water, then tossed in a skillet with some butter, or
green beans that are blanched until almost completely soft
before being stirred into a creamy mushroom sauce and
baked in a casserole. It’s a softening step for vegetables,
allowing you better control over the texture of the finished
dish, rather than trying to cook all the ingredients in one
steporonepot.It’salsoavaluableorganizationalandtimesavingtoolfordinnerpartiesorholidays.
Rememberthis:anytimeblanchingavegetableispartofa
recipe, you canalwayscoolthatvegetable,dryitcarefully,
and finish the rest of the recipe later. This means that a
recipefor,say,abroccoliorcauliflowergratinthatcallsfor
blanching the stalks, then covering them with a cheese
sauce and baking can actually be broken down into two
distinct steps that don’t have to be done with one
immediatelyfollowingtheother.Heck,youcouldboilyour
broccolionMonday,thentossitwithyourcheesesauceand
bakeitonThursdayifyou’dlike.Thiskindofflexibilityin
arecipemakesplanningandexecutingfarsimpler.
I’ve included steaming in this section as well, since it
essentiallyaccomplishesthesamegoalasblanching.

BUTTEREDSNAPPEAS
Here is blanching at its absolute simplest. You boil your
snappeasjustuntilbarelytender,thenaddthemtoabuttery
sauce(orjustbutterandlemonjuice)youhavewaitingina
skillet. Toss to combine over high heat, and serve. Of
course, as I mentioned above, you can blanch the peas
ahead of time, cool them down, and serve them whenever


you’d like by preparing the sauce, adding the peas straight

fromthefridge,andtossinguntilheatedthrough.
Wanttomaketherecipeeveneasier?Skipthesnappeas
and use regular old frozen green peas. Because freezing
vegetablesdisruptstheircellstructureinmuchthesameway
thatblanchingdoes,ifyouusefrozenpeas,there’snoneed
to even boil them beforehand. Simply thaw them under
running water, drain, and add them to the buttery sauce in
theskillet.

PICKINGPEAS