If we look at different recipes, whether lean or with meat, we will find that one thing is almost always missing. They explain what the products are, how much to add of everything, in what order they are added, even how to arrange them and in what cookware to place them, but we cannot find anywhere information about cleaning.
For a novice cook, these things are not as "clear" as we think. For those who have more experience, this is a process, which makes no sense to be mentioned. However, to clarify, everything that is added to the dish as products, except dry spices and fat, must be washed beforehand and cleaned.
Even the meat, when added to a dish, is well washed beforehand. After all, it comes from a store, before it was in stock and before that it was not packaged. It has been touched by many different people and although most of them wear gloves, it is best to wash it beforehand.
The vegetables also need to be prepared - most of them are peeled, which manages to remove the part that is most contaminated.
But how do you clean those leafy vegetables, which you can't remove a single layer of?
Examples are spinach, dock and sorrel. They are very easy to clean. It is best to soak them in water for 20 minutes, so that yu don't have to wash each leaf separately - it will take too long.
In a large bowl put all of the leaves and fill it with water. This way the soil, if any, is washed away. If there is a lot of bits in the water, repeat the procedure.
Then you need to drain the vegetables. The important part comes when you start cutting vegetables. The roots of the spinach are removed (if you have bought one with roots) and most of the stems, since they are hard. The goal is to keep the leaf itself.
For the dock and sorrel, remove the hard vein in the middle of the leaf (if any) and then cut and begin cooking. You don't have to remove them if you are going to cut the vegetables into small pieces, but if it is left and is then harder to chew than the rest, the feeling is unpleasant.
If you doubting the purity of the soil, where the green leafy vegetables have grown, you can soak the leaves in an aqueous solution of water with a little vinegar. Let them soak for 1 hour, after which you need to wash them.
Last but not least, neither spinach nor dock and sorrel can withstand prolonged cooking. Spinach is the most susceptible to cooking; dock takes only a few minutes and it is best not to subject the sorrel to high temperatures at all and to consume it fresh.
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