Topic: help with nvq question

[pumpkin]

can some one help with this question
how do you prepare and cook aqueous vegetables
  it is driving me mad cant find out in my book or off the net get nothing but chemical sprays thanks in advance

[redimp]

Same here - I think you might have to let some of us know what you mean.

[Gadfium]

I'm afraid I don't know what an 'aqueous' vegetable is...  :(

[Jill]

Seaweed?

[redimp]

Fry it in butter, garlic and chili - never fails.

[tim]

Does it mean something like cucumbers or tomatoes?

 If so, I can't see a common denominator in cooking.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Aqueous veg must be ones with lots of water, but it may be an NVQ-specific term, or maybe a catering-specific term as I've never come across it. Can you give examples?

[Icyberjunkie]

Sounds like watercress or beansprouts but like everyone else some examples would help as the cooking methods and desitred outcome will vary depending on the nature of the dish and regionality.

[djbrenton]

Interestingly, every google page which refers to "Aqueous vegetable" is concerned with vegetable extract, for example vegetable oils and olive by-products.

[djbrenton]

But then a search for "aqueous vegetables" yields this doozy

http://sj.blacksteel.com/media/mental/p112.html
"The diet of patients in whom much blood is easily formed should be of aliments which have little nourishment, with very aqueous vegetables"

[tim]

Interestingly (?) the Chef of our best local 5 Star hotel has never heard the term.

[Melbourne12]

My guess is that what they’ll be looking for is how watery veggies are treated so as to preserve the vitamins & minerals and other nutrients in them. 

It might be worth looking at something like the USDA database of nutritional values

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

You can download the vegetables section as a PDF file, and pick a few examples.  They are pretty helpful in that in most cases they show the nutritional values both for the whole veggie including the skin, and the peeled version.  Sometimes you get values for raw and cooked as well.

I think that watery vegetables in all different types of cookery around the world are cooked so that either the nutrients are sealed in (eg fritters, stir fries), or as a soup, stew, or sauce where the liquid is allowed to escape from the vegetable, but is consumed as part of the sauce.

Very often the skin is eaten, since it is relatively high in nutritional value (see the USDA tables).  Obviously if it’s tough or spiny it may have to be removed.  Even then the skin may serve as a sort of dish (eg for stuffed vegetables).

[pumpkin]

thanks to all who ansered seaweed has been the most common ansa on all the garden/allotment site chats i have placed this on  i am doing an nvq in catering and have been in collage 2 days this week i asked the chef , my boss, my assessor and the other cooks on the course and noone could ansa that 1 question  so i think i will put seaweed as the ansa and hope its right  if not at least some1 will have to tell me why  thanks every 1   :)

[Melbourne12]

Not wanting to stir up too much of a debate, but surely seaweed would be described as a "marine vegetable", not an "aqueous" one?

But if you're convinced that they mean vegetable that grow in water, rather than vegetables with a high water content, what about fresh water veggies like watercress, or water chestnuts?  And what about rice?

[Jesse]

IMO aqueous vegetables are those with a high water content e.g. celery. When stir frying such vegetables the water can leach out and affect the taste and texture of the dish, sometimes it is recommended that these vegetables be blanched before stir frying.

Here's a quote from a site that talks about blanching vegetables:

"Vegetables with a high water content can release enough water during cooking to affect the taste of a sauce. Blanching removes some of that excess water before the vegetables reach the wok or frying pan."

[tim]

I'll stick to my cucumber!!

[Icyberjunkie]

Do you cook them though Tim......  ::)   ;D

[flowerlady]

Do you think that this might include mushrooms?  Whenever I cook these with a lid on the pan great quantities of fluid appears? :-\

[Trenchboy]

Before I had my transplant aqueous sodding vegetables were just about all I was allowed to eat.

The COURGETTE being the greatest object of all dialysis patients.

And now I grow them for the rest of the crew!

Some old dogs can learn new tricks...

[pumpkin]

here is the question in its entirety
complete the following chartby listing the prep and cooking methods off  each vegetable
veg                       prep                               cooking method
roots
bulbs
aqueous
flowerheads
funghi
legumes
tubers
leaves
stems
vegetable fruits