Blanch
Blanching is a quick cooking method in which food, usually vegetables or fruit, is plunged into rapidly boiling water for a short time and then immediately transferred to ice water to stop the cooking. This brief scald sets bright colors, softens texture slightly, and loosens skins, all without fully cooking the food. It is a preparation step rather than a finished cooking technique.
Cooks rely on blanching to prep vegetables for freezing, since it halts the enzymes that would otherwise dull color and flavor in the freezer, and to make peeling easy on tomatoes, peaches, and almonds whose skins slip off after a dip. It is also the way to get crisp-tender green beans or asparagus for a salad or crudite platter. The key is the ice bath, sometimes called shocking, which locks in that vivid green and keeps the food from turning soft and drab.
Cooks rely on blanching to prep vegetables for freezing, since it halts the enzymes that would otherwise dull color and flavor in the freezer, and to make peeling easy on tomatoes, peaches, and almonds whose skins slip off after a dip. It is also the way to get crisp-tender green beans or asparagus for a salad or crudite platter. The key is the ice bath, sometimes called shocking, which locks in that vivid green and keeps the food from turning soft and drab.