Blanch

v. bleach; turn pale; whiten (of plants); remove almond skins by boiling; cook vegetables briefly; scald

Blanch may refer toBlanching, a form of cooking.Blanching (coinage), a method used to whiten metal.Blanch (medical), a physiologic phenomenon whereby the skin appears whitish because a transient ischemia is introduced.
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Verb
1. turn pale, as if in fear
(synonym) pale, blench
(hypernym) discolor, discolour, colour, color
2. cook (vegetables) briefly; "Parboil the beans before freezing them"
(synonym) parboil
(hypernym) cook
(classification) cooking, cookery, preparation

(v. t.)
To cause to turn aside or back; as, to blanch a deer.
  

(v. t.)
To avoid, as from fear; to evade; to leave unnoticed.
  

(v. i.)
To use evasion.
  

(v. i.)
To grow or become white; as, his cheek blanched with fear; the rose blanches in the sun.
  

(n.)
Ore, not in masses, but mixed with other minerals.
  

(a.)
To whiten, as the surface of meat, by plunging into boiling water and afterwards into cold, so as to harden the surface and retain the juices.
  

(a.)
To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach; as, to blanch linen; age has blanched his hair.
  

(a.)
To make white by removing the skin of, as by scalding; as, to blanch almonds.
  

(a.)
To give a white luster to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining.).
  

(a.)
To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
  

(a.)
To bleach by excluding the light, as the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together.
  

(a.)
Fig.: To whiten; to give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to palliate.
  

To place foods in boiling water briefly either to partially cook them or to aid in the removal of the skin (i.e. nuts, peaches, tomatoes). Blanching also removes the bitterness from citrus zests.