Cooking Recipes

Many people want to learn techniques and ways to cook. Baking is sort of a precise art while cooking meals are usually dependent on the cook’s preference. Cooking recipes for cakes and other pastries usually have terms that need to be understood and followed to make a successful cake. Cooking recipes for meals usually have simpler terms and it is usually the ingredients that may need defining.

Baste means to brush the meat you are cooking with liquid fat or juices while roasting. This action will prevent the meat from drying and integrate more flavor into it. In some cooking recipes, the term confit means to gradually cook pieces of meat in their own juices or fats. Gratin means to combine food with a liquid ingredient like milk, tomato sauce, béchamel sauce or cream. In cooking recipes, you might find the term Julienne, it means to cut into thin, long strips.

Some cooking recipes might call for a medallion. This means a round piece of meat not the medal that comes to mind. To score means to make some cuts on a piece of meat in order to tenderize it. Some cooking recipes ask for aspic; this is a clear gel like substance formed from broth or even juice. A Dutch oven is a pot made from cast iron which is used to make stews, braises and pot roasts. If some cooking recipes call for Duxelles, you will now know that it means a fine shallot-scented mushroom hash.

Most Thai and Asian cooking recipes might need fish sauce. Fish sauce is a semi-transparent amber liquid made from fermented fish. Other Asian cooking recipes also use lemongrass, which is used to give flavor and aroma to most food. Japanese cuisine, especially the makis, usually use these dried seaweed sheets for rolls and soups. Quenelle is a paste derived from fish, meat or poultry mixed with panade, cream and eggs. It can also be a rounded dumpling made from the paste which is poached in stock.

These terms are just a few of the cooking recipes more uncommon terms. These terms are usually used for cooking meals and not parties or cakes which used somewhat different terms. Cooking recipes abound in the Internet and you can even copy some of them because most contributors post their recipes free of charge. For those who wish to try and cook meals, it is best to familiarized yourself with the recipe and its terms before starting to cook it.

Cooking Recipe #1: Chick Pea and Corn Salad

Ingredients:

1 can of ready to eat chick peas or garbanzo beans

1 small packet of frozen corn

½ a can of tamarind paste (available in the Indian or ethnic foods store or section of your grocery store)

Coarsely ground red chilies

Coarsely ground and roasted cumin seeds

Salt

Finely chopped tomatoes

Finely chopped onions

Finely chopped cilantro

Method:

Drain the water and empty the chick peas in to a pan. Add the corn and tamarind water (by mixing the tamarind paste in to hot water). If the brand of tamarind you choose has seeds in it, throw them away. Add the spices and cover the pan for around 10 minutes. Let it simmer. When the corn is cooked, garnish with the veggies and serve hot or cold.

Cooking Recipe #2: Spicy Hot Potatoes

4 large potatoes

Lemon juice

Curry leaves

Whole red chilies (long or round)

Mustard seeds

Cumin seeds

Salt

Finely chopped cilantro

Chunks of jalapeno (optional)

4 tbsp. canola oil

Method:

Boil the potatoes. Let them cool and then cut them on to medium sized chunks. In a pan, add some canola oil and fry the red chilies until they are dark. Add the other spices and curry leaves with a little water (be careful as it may splatter) and let it simmer for around 7 minutes. Now add the potato chunks and lemon juice and stir until the potatoes are well coated with all the spices. Garnish with the cilantro and jalapeño.

Cooking Recipe #3: Leftover Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:

Left over fried roasted or any kind of chicken

Cream cheese

Mustard powder or paste

Mayonnaise

Brown and white bread

Salt

Coarsely ground black pepper

Method:

De-bone and wash off any sauce or spices from the left over chicken. Cut or shred in to smaller pieces and put in a hand help blender with a little of the cream cheese, mayo, salt, pepper and mustard. Taste as to how tangy or sweet or spicy you would like it to be.

Grind to a paste and spread on white and brown bread cut the sandwiches in to fours and alternate them on the serving dish so that it resembles a checkerboard. a simple cooking recipe that costs very little when you use leftovers!

Cooking Recipe #4: Easy Pineapples and Cream

Ingredients:

1 tub of Cool Whip

1 can of pineapple chunks

1 packet of pineapple flavored jello

Colored sugar for decorating

Let Cool Whip thaw in the refrigerator for five hours. Open a can of pineapple and using its syrup plus water, make the pineapple jello as per the instructions on the pack. Let it cool but keep on stirring so that it doesn’t set. Blot the pineapple chunks on kitchen towels.

Then using a spoon or an electric beater, mix the jello into the cream. Add the pineapple chunks and let it chill over night. Decorate with remaining chunks and some colored sugar.