Growing at the Speed of Life - A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden

Boil

When foods undergo a complete immersion in boiling water or stock, there is

definitely a leaching of soluble vitamins, but there are textural and fl avor (stocks)

benefits as well as simplicity!

I infinitely prefer steaming (discussed next), which avoids the loss of nutri­

ents and involves about the same amount of time; steaming also seems to provide

a more even result. There are, however, a couple of exceptions: boiled new pota­

toes and green peas. New potatoes can be boiled for about 10 minutes and

drained, then covered with a towel (pressed down onto the potatoes) and left on

a low heat for about 5 minutes to draw off the surplus water. This method avoids

that waterlogged texture that often accompanies straightforward boiling.

And a favorite of mine: peas tightly covered and boiled in ¼ cup of water

with a few leaves of fresh mint and just a touch of sugar.

In addition to the obvious fl avor benefits, there is also the water itself, which

now contains some of the leached vitamins. This I always add to my ever-present

stockpot of trimmings so that I don’t lose those nutrients (see the Vegetable Stock

recipe on page 288).

Add just enough salt to the water to avoid the need to add more at the table.

Steam

Steaming is swift and offers good retention of fl avor,

color, and nutrients, provided that the food is not

steamed for too long. Every unnecessary minute on

the heat will seriously reduce this method’s benefi ts.

So I urge you to use a timer every time you steam.

The vegetable is placed in a perforated basket

that is suspended over vigorously boiling water and

covered tightly with a lid to contain the steam. Th e

50 • GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE