Blanching is a technique used to removed the skins from foods. You can blanch many things and today I have blanched almonds. It's the first time I've ever blanched anything in fact and the result was a success. I looked around on the internet and found at least a couple of ways to do it. The instructions I settled on are as follows.

Blanched Almonds

• Bring a pot of water to a boil.
• Toss in your almonds for 15 - 30 seconds, stirring once.
  
• Strain and rinse almonds in cool water.
• Let sit for a minute or two.
  

To remove the skins, grab an almond between your thumb and forefinger and give it a squeeze. The instructions I found said specifically to do this from the larger end but I found it doesn't really matter.

The result: some sad looking naked little almonds. Poor little guys, they look a bit forlorn, don't you think? All undressed and exposed.

Why did I disrobe them in the first place? To use in a recipe I will feature in a few days. I ground these ivory gems into a fine meal using my handy dandy food processor.

All in all this was a lot easier and not as time consuming as I'd thought it would be. One of the instructions I found joked that you should just buy almonds, already naked, at the store since they are readily available.