| Some meats need to be partially precooked just long
enough to get rid of off-odors but not so long their flavor
or texture changes. Some vegetables also need precooking
to get rid of astringency or bitterness or to heighten
their fresh color. Parboiling and partial frying are the
two most common methods of precooking foods before they
are combined with other ingredients for the remaining
steps in a recipe.
There are four methods of parboiling. Each uses different
timings and temperatures and yields different results.
 Parboiling
Parboiling vegetables like taro root, Chinese yams
and fresh bamboo shoots by cooking them in boiling water
before they are cooked with other ingredients, helps
to remove their astringent taste and makes peeling easier.
These vegetables should be parboiled in their skins,
if possible, and peeled and cut as required afterwards
to avoid loss of nutrients.
Slow-boiling
Slow-boiling is used for foods like pork tripe that
take a longer time to cook than the other ingredients
in a recipe. These foods should be simmered in boiling
water until tender and then combined with the rest of
food and seasonings called for in the recipe.
Hot-plunging
or blanching
Hot-plunging or blanching is used for some tender,
fresh vegetables to set their color and texture. Celery,
spinach, green beans and other vegetables are plunged
into a large pot of boiling water and removed as soon
as the water returns to a boil. They are then drained
and run immediately under cold water to stop the cooking
process.
Quick-boiling
Quick-boiling is often used to rid meat of bits of
bone and the off-odor that comes from the blood. The
meat is placed in cold water and removed and drained
as soon as it comes to a boil. However, the method used
for pork kidney, fish, and chicken is closer to blanching:
the meat is dropped into boiling water and removed as
soon as it is cooked.
Chinese cooking also uses two methods of partial frying
foods as an intermediate step in many recipes.
Sliding through the oil means placing an ingredient
in warm oil which has been heated to
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