Quote:
Originally Posted by GoDawgs
For me that's dumping them into boiling water for two minutes and then immediately into ice water for three minutes before draining and blotting off the excess water. It's also called "shocking" vegetables. It stops the enzymes that make stuff keep ripening and sets the color.
|
Bingo. I use lots of ice, you want to cool them as quick as possible all the way through. I even throw them in a salad spinner sometimes after draining to get as much water off as possible before freezing. Blanching is the hot water part, shocking is the cold water part and both are necessary. Quick blanch will "par-cook' the veggies, but not to the point they lose texture and as GoDawgs mentioned color.