Cauliflower and broccoli are incredibly useful, but not loved by everyone. For some reason, some people are frankly against these vegetables. In 99% of cases, they simply do not know how to cook them properly. Most often the same mistakes are made. How tasty and interesting to cook cauliflower and broccoli?
Dressed right?
When frozen inflorescences fall into the hands, there is no question of preparation. If you managed to buy or grow a vegetable, then the most frequent mistakes begin. The first of them - the cabbage is not soaked. It is very important. Inside the small buds that make up the inflorescences are often hidden bugs. Therefore, forks must be lowered for half an hour in salted water. In addition, during this time dust will come out of it, other pollution will dissolve.
Cutting errors:
- Pops and roots. Oh, the stems and inflorescences. Forks consists of two different types of vegetables. Inflorescences prepare quickly, the fleshy part requires much more time. Therefore it is necessary to separate them immediately.
- Picked finely. Inflorescences are usually pre-boiled. It is advisable not to shallow, otherwise a lot of crumbs will remain in the pan. After cooking, the cabbage can be disassembled into pieces of the desired size.
- Cabbage has blossomed. Very often on cabbage there are areas with blossoming flowers. They are not harmful, but bitter. Therefore, it is better to immediately remove the dishes in such areas is not the place.
Recipes often refer to inflorescences. But this does not mean that you need to throw away fleshy stems. They can be added to soups, like potatoes. Just throwing a little earlier. Or prepare delicious vitamin salads. You can clean the stems with a knife, inside is very tender and juicy pulp.
Cook with taste
Regardless of the method of cooking cauliflower or broccoli, it is important to boil the pre-inflorescence. The water will leave bitterness and a specific aroma. The taste of the vegetable will improve significantly. Even with a long subsequent stewing or cooking in the oven can not be neglected this stage. As mentioned above, it is not necessary to chop the inflorescences finely. The ideal size is the size of the chicken egg. Cabbage cooking rules:
- The inflorescences are dipped only in boiling water. Cooking time is marked from the moment of cabbage boiling. The more water in the pot, the faster it will happen.
- Water must be salted. No need to guess the quantity, 10 g of salt is required per liter of water, as is the case with pasta.
- One or two tablespoons of sugar can be added to cauliflower water. It will improve the taste of the vegetable, as well as help preserve the white color.
- It is necessary to bring the cabbage to a boil quickly, then the fire diminishes.
- You do not need to stir inflorescences often, they break down from this, the form suffers, there will be many crumbs in the water.
- After cooking, the cauliflower or broccoli is immediately dipped in cold water. The French even add ice to it. It is believed that you need to sharply stop the heat treatment, otherwise the inflorescences lose their taste.
- Boiled cabbage is left in a colander or spread on napkins to remove water, dry it before frying or cooking in an oven.
The main secret to preserving taste is not to digest a vegetable. Otherwise, it will lose its properties, become soft, loose, the form will deteriorate. Pre-boiling color is 5-7 minutes, broccoli is enough for 3-4 minutes. If you need to bring the inflorescences to absolute readiness, then cauliflower boil for 10-13 minutes, broccoli is enough for 8-10 minutes. The exact time depends on the degree of maturity, variety, size of inflorescences, as well as the planned dish.
Good advice! To give the vegetable a pleasant aroma, you can add bay leaves, peppercorns, dry garlic or a few fresh cloves when cooking.
Cooking Tips
- Cauliflower and broccoli have an irregular shape, inflorescences often look out of the form and casseroles, burn. To prevent this from happening, you can grease them with sour cream or mayonnaise.
- If more inflorescences are boiled than needed, they can be frozen. It is advisable to first dry a little on a napkin. But you can not send in the freezer vegetables, which were taken from there before cooking. Repeated freezing will destroy all vitamins.
- Salt when cooking is added is not very much, so the cabbage before frying or sending to the oven, you must definitely try, add more spices.
- Cauliflower is perfectly camouflaged as a potato. For this reason, it is often added or used in diet mashed potatoes and other side dishes, soups.
- Broccoli may not have a very beautiful color, this should be taken into account when mixing with other vegetables during the preparation of mashed potatoes. The best way to mask the shade - sprinkle the dish with greens, crackers, seeds, pour sour cream or cream.
TOP-5 of the most delicious dishes
Cauliflower (like broccoli) is often associated with baby food, diet, medical table. That is why steamed or just boiled. It is clear that such dishes do not differ bright taste and rich aroma. There are no dietary options here, but they will force you to take a different look at the colorful heads of cabbage.
TOP of the most delicious dishes:
- Soup puree. Very often, these types of cabbage are used precisely for it. To get tasty, it is important not to save on the ingredients. In addition to vegetables, be sure to add cream, mushrooms or chicken, melted cheese.
- Cabbage in batter. Fried cabbage inflorescences are a great alternative to pies. They can be given absolutely any taste, it all depends on the test and the spices used. A batter can be made on beer, milk, with cheese, garlic, greens.
- Cabbage in breading. In addition to batter, you can fry cauliflower or broccoli in crispy bread crumbs. Often it is mixed with sesame seeds, cheese.
- Casseroles. Here the fantasy is limitless. Most often, cauliflower is combined with chicken fillet, cheese, cream. She is excellent friends with shrimps, seafood and other vegetables.
- Omelets. Cabbage fits perfectly with eggs. Omelets are prepared quickly and easily, contain a lot of protein. You can play with additives to get new dishes every time.
Regardless of the recipe chosen, it is important to prepare the main ingredient according to the rules. Then the dish will certainly please with its taste and aroma, and the cabbage will fall in love with itself.
