Cooking Tips

Appears in
Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals
Veg-table

By Nik Sharma

Published 2023

  • About
  • Raw bamboo must be cooked before it can be eaten. (Canned bamboo shoots have been cooked; they are ready to eat.) Uncooked raw bamboo tastes extremely bitter due to the presence of toxic substances called cyanogenic glycosides (also found in apple pips and cassava). Boiling peeled raw bamboo shoots in salted water for 25 to 30 minutes destroys the toxic substances and tempers the bitterness, leaving the shoots with a pleasantly mild, corn-like flavor. Discard the cooking water, rinse the cooked bamboo shoots well, store them in ice-cold water, and use as needed.
  • Rehydrate dried bamboo shoots in a bowl of boiling water; leave to soften for several hours. These aren’t as flavorful as fresh or canned versions.
  • When making creamy bisques or puréed corn soups (see Creamy Corn Soup with Jalapeño Oil), first boil the corn kernels in water with salt and baking soda. For 2 ears of corn, use 2 cups [480 ml] water, ½ tsp fine sea salt, and ¼ tsp baking soda. The combined action of heat, water, and the two sodium salts helps make the pectin inside the corn kernels water-soluble. The alkaline condition created by the baking soda also provides two extra benefits: It prevents the starch present inside the kernels from gelatinizing too much—so the soup won’t be excessively viscous—and the baking soda acts as a catalyst, promoting development of flavors via caramelization and the Maillard reaction.
  • Save those corn husks to make (of course) tamales and also a pot of toasted corn husk stock. Use the stock as you would any stock to make soups (Creamy Corn Soup with Jalapeño Oil) and flavor your dishes (Sweet Corn Pulao).