Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Whenever I see a recipe which requires me to blanch vegetables for a few minutes, I microwave them instead. It's sometimes faster, I don't have to get a pot dirty, and I don't usually have to dry the vegetables afterwards. The microwave seems to do a very good job of par-cooking any vegetable which is cut up into small, uniform-sized pieces.

However, I've never seen a mainstream cookbook recommend microwaving instead of blanching. Is there a reason for this? Am I losing flavor or texture I would get with blanching? Or is this just one of those bits of propaganda one learns in Chef School, like how garlic presses are evil?

In other words: anyone go as far as doing a taste-test on this?

I haven't blanched in the mw (but I will now). I do make a kind of veggie stew that I have tried stovetop, pressure cooker and microwave and the microwave comes way out on top. The flavours are much more pronounced and the texture of the veggies is much better.

Mary

Actually, Modernist Cuisine has a fair section on microwaving and actually recommends it for several vegetables. Off hand, bok choy was one of them. I do Asparagus in the MW whenever I want the steamed taste. Spritz a paper towel till its fairly damp, wrap around asparagus, nuke for couple (adjust as required). Perfect asparagus, and very tasty. I'd expect most restaurant cooks wouldn't do the MW for blanching due to the low capacity (particularly if you want even cooking).

They are evil.

But the microwave is not...it's effective for some veggies.

Amy

I suspect blanching might keep some things a bit more green if you plan to hold them, but I do almost all veggies in the microwave. Faster and easier, you lose less nutrients to water, and the big plus for me is that the dishes go in the dishwasher and it's pretty hands off when you're doing other things. You just have to watch green beans. They can shrivel up like prunes if you overnuke them...not that this has ever happened to me (in the middle of a dinner party) of course. I've never tried asparagus though...I tend to roast or grill them, so I'll have to give the paper towel trick a try.

Roasted/grilled/broiled asparagus is pretty drastically different then steamed/MV. The latter has a much grassier, 'fresh' flavour, the former is rich. I like em both, but use them for different flavours. Alton had an excellent episode on asparagus (where I got the MW method) that explains why it changes so much with different cooking techniques.

Hi,

I think the problem may be the variances in performance of microwaves. These include power levels and evenness of cooking.

I use a microwave to par-cook potato chips/batons/wedges. This is much easier than cooking in oil and cleaner.

Tim

Cooking in cleaner sounds pretty vile. I'd stick to just the oil.

I really don't like steamed or boiled veggies. I roast or stir-fry pretty much every vegetable that doesn't get eaten raw in salads. I do like to nuke potato bits for home fries even though microwaves may not be very friendly to phenolic compounds in potatoes. A handful of contradictory studies have not managed to conquer my laziness, yet, though.