CRYO-BLANCHING AND
SAUTÉING
Cryo-blanching is a technique that was developed by my
friends Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa over at the blog
ideasinfood.com (they have a book of the same name). I’ve
been following their work ever since I was a lowly line cook
at Clio, the very restaurant where the couple honed their
culinary chops. The technique sounds simple: rapidly freeze
vegetables, then thaw and cook. But the concept is pretty
brilliant. As I mentioned earlier in the discussion on peas
(see here), freezing vegetables actually causes many of the
same reactions as blanching does, namely, helping cells to
break down and internal gases to escape. As the vegetables