In the process of cooking, we often encounter a step called "blanching", which is to blanch the ingredients in boiling water for a while and then take them out immediately. It can be directly put into ice water to quickly cool down, or it can be directly put aside for later use.
Scalding seems simple, but many people will miss this step. Many people think that blanching is simply cooking the ingredients, and it doesn't matter if you omit this step. However, everyone should pay attention. Usually, the ingredients that need to be blanched on the menu are "foods that cannot be eaten without blanching". Please test yourself. Do you usually eat correctly?
For example: lentils, long beans, fresh daylily, kidney beans and so on.
These foods contain natural toxins. Take long beans as an example. Friends in the northeast know that long beans must be cooked before they can be eaten. Otherwise, the toxins contained in long beans can easily make people vomit and diarrhea, and even food poisoning may occur in severe cases. In order to cook beans quickly, it is a trick to blanch long beans in water for a while.
Fresh day lily, containing colchicine, is also a component that is easy to cause poisoning. Boil in boiling water for 5 minutes, then stir-fry the day lily with strong fire until it is completely cooked before eating. Colchicine is very toxic, so you must blanch these natural ingredients containing toxins.
Examples: spinach, bamboo shoots, bitter gourd.
Too much oxalic acid will affect the body's absorption of minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc. Oxalic acid will also enter the human kidney and form calcium oxalate with calcium in the body. Long-term accumulation is easy to form kidney calculi. If you blanch vegetables with boiling water for a while before cooking, you can not only keep the vegetables green, but also remove 30%~87% oxalic acid.
Oxalic acid is easily soluble in water, and blanching is the best way to remove oxalic acid. You will also find that the scalded dishes are not so sour and have no earthy smell of plants.
For example: Toona sinensis, spinach.
Fresh-picked Toona sinensis and spinach contain less nitrite, but after a few days, the nitrite produced in vegetables will reach a peak. If you eat too much at one time, you will probably eat yourself in the hospital. Fortunately, nitrite is soluble in water, and boiling water can remove a lot of nitrate and nitrite.
Example: broccoli, cauliflower.
Broccoli and cauliflower are one of the most difficult vegetables to clean. Hand washing is afraid of breaking, and toothbrush is afraid of breaking the shape of the dish. In addition, these two kinds of vegetables are easy to hide insects. In order to force out the insects hidden in vegetables, boiling water is essential.
If you don't blanch with boiling water, you may eat something with protein. Boiling water to cook cauliflower can also better retain pesticide residues.
For example: pork, beef and mutton.
Generally speaking, if meat and internal organs are to be stewed or fried, there is a step of blanching. Put cold water in the pot to remove the "blood water" from the meat. This water is not real blood, but impurities of myoglobin, oil and fishy smell. If you eat meat directly, it is likely to taste fishy.
Blanching before cooking can not only remove the fishy smell, but also make the soup clearer and brighter and enhance the impression of dishes. This is also commonly known by the elders as "dirty things come out of muddy water", and those white floating foam are "dirty things".