DictionaryDecember: a quick+basic cooking definition every day this month!
Soft boiled versus hard boiled?
A had boiled egg should have no softness or liquid in the yolk at all when you break it open. The best way to cook hard boil is to put your eggs in a saucepan, cover in water and add 1Tbs of white vinegar. Then put on the stove on high heat. When the mix starts to boil, start a timer. You want to give it 10 full minutes of boiling. Once it's done, take the saucepan to the sink and fill it with cold water, gradually letting the cold water transition the temperature of the water the eggs are sitting in. When the water is fully cold, sit it for 20 min to let the eggs cool through before peeling.
For cooking soft boiled eggs, start by boiling some water with 1Tbs white vinegar in there. Add the eggs to the boiling water then let it come back to boil and cook for 3 minutes. This will be the runniest you want your eggs (ie. white JUST cooked, and all the yolk runny). If you want it a little more cooked, just choose a point between 3 and 10 minutes!
DictionaryDecember: a quick+basic cooking definition every day this month!
What is steeping?
Steeping is just a fancy word for adding something once you've removed the dish from the stove or oven. Beer brewing recipes often say "remove the malt from the stove and steep the hops for 20 minutes" The translation of this is "turn off the stove where the malt is cooking in a pot, then put the hops into the pot and let it sit there with no added heat for 20 mins". If you think about it, you steep tea leaves into water in your tea cup after the water has boiled in the kettle! You may run into this term in cooking, so it's worth knowing....
DictionaryDecember: a quick+basic cooking definition every day this month!
What is poaching?
Poaching just means to boil something in water to cook it. Common examples are poaching eggs and poaching chicken.
For poached eggs, the key is to not let the eggwhites disburse completely in the water! You want the whites to stay together around the yolk. So 1. add a Tbs of white vinegar to the water. 2. Once it's boiled, turn it down so the water is close to still for adding the egg. 3. break the egg in. It will sink to the bottom, then turn the heat up slightly and use a spoon to try to pursuade the egg to leave the bottom without breaking it. 4. Boil it for about 1-2 mins, then take it out. It's ready when all the eggwhite is opaque. (also check out the link below to my "cheats way" to poaching eggs)
You may also need to poach chicken (to tear up and put on a salad or something). In this case, just add a pinch of salt to boiling water and add the chicken for a few mins. It's cooked when you squeeze the meat between thumb and forefinger and it feels firm. And since you're probably shredding it anyway, there is no harm in cutting the chicken piece into smaller pieces to cook quicker before you put them in the water.
DictionaryDecember: a quick+basic cooking definition every day this month!
What does "grease a pan" mean?
This may seem like a silly question. You probably know. You often grease a pan or dish before baking in it (like a cake,meat loaf, bread, etc). Anyway, the reason for this definition is to give you a dead easy way to do it! My mother used to save the wrappers from sticks of butter and use those to wipe down a pan so that whatever you're cooking doesn't stick. No point! Bakers often have melted butter and a pastry brush on hand all the time to brush down a pan quickly. Too much! Just use your finger to scrape about 1/2 a tsp of margarine out of the tub, then wipe it on the bottom of the tin and smear it around with your fingers. Takes about 15 seconds and it's done! I did this in a cake making demo the other day at the cooking school, and suprised a few people, but they were ok once I gave them this explanation!
DictionaryDecember: a quick+basic cooking definition every day this month!
What is an eggwash?
Simple! An eggwash is a mixture of egg and milk, whisked together (about 1/4 cup of milk for each egg). It's most commonly used to brush the top of pastry before baking it - the result is that lovely golden brown finish when you take it out of the oven. Another common use of eggwash is to dip meat in before crumbing. The usual process for crumbing schnitzel, or fish, is to dust the meat in flour, then dip in eggwash, then roll in breadcrumbs.
