How Do You Blanch Veggies?

[ally86ozzy]

how do u blanch veggies like cucumbers?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cucmbers don't need it,

but technically to correctly blanch veggies you put them into a pan of boiling water for about 1 minute, then remove them and put them straight into ice cold water. blanching is used to part cook then preserve veggies, people often use it for dinner parties and stuff to reduce cooking time when guests are there.

in practical terms for fishkeeping all you need to do is stick them in boiling water for a minute of so to soften them up a bit, then just stick them in the tank, usually need to weigh them down with something

 

[Axleuk]

Blanching is to cook without colour. So Miss Wiggles advice to cook for 1 min might vary but in most cases will be sufficient

 

[ally86ozzy]

would i need to cut the skin off?

 

[Axleuk]

would i need to cut the skin off?

You dont need to as the fish normally hollow out the middle but some people do. It personal preference really.

 

[ox5477]

For peas, you need to blanche them to remove the husk as the fish will not eat the husk... but for cuc's, just cut a slice and weight it down with a spoon and the fish will do the rest

Ox

 

[Axleuk]

You could also get some fish flake food and crush it to a fine powder. Remove the skin from some cucumber, dice the flesh nice and small and roll it in the fish flake powder and pop it in the tank, it will float but the fish will love it.

 

[raptorrex]

interestingly the skin hold most of the really good stuff. much of the required fibre is in that part. and if you par boil the veg, its even more important as the veg gives much of it nutrients and vitamins up, even with a quick boil, so its likely to be the only place with any real value left! it might be better, perhaps, to leave the cucumber/courgette on the shelf for a little while to let it soften up before you pop it in. don't worry, unless your filtration is totally up the spout, it will cause no problems. even if you just left it to rot in there. i use frozen peas, they just pop out of their skins, with a little push. this again avoids the need to boil and loose valuable nutrients. also, providing the salt content is checked, tinned veg of almost any type goes down well too.

ps, there are many fresh fruits that you can use too, though this depends on the fish. but they go down well with many plecos.