And That Means What?

Once you start to get interested in cooking and you look at more recipes, you’ll come across cookery terms that may be unfamiliar. If you haven’t come across them watching Gordon or Jamie, here’s what they mean.

• Beat: Tilt the bowl of ingredients in one hand and stir round fast and firmly in one direction with a wooden spoon. Keep going until it’s smooth.

TIP To chop fresh herbs, put them in a mug and snip with scissors.

• Chop: Cut any vegetable or fruit in half first so the flat cut side is down on the chopping board. Then hold firmly in one hand and, using a sharp knife, make cuts at even distances along the length of the food not quite through one end. Then, still holding it together, make cuts across it so that it is cut into small pieces. To chop finely, simply make the cuts closer together; to chop coarsely … you don’t need me to tell you.

TIP If you hate chopping onions, buy a bag of frozen, diced onion and use a handful instead.

• Dice: Much like chopping but into bigger cubes and you can cut right through the food at both ends as it’s easier to hold together.
• Flameproof: This is not the same as ‘ovenproof’ but means anything that can go on the hob or under the grill. If in doubt about a casserole dish that you want to use under the grill, for example – don’t.
• Fold: This is like mixing lightly to keep air in a mixture. Use a metal spoon and gently cut and turn over the mixture using a figure-of-eight motion.
• Grate: Hold the grater firmly in one hand over a plate and rub the ingredient to be grated up and down the appropriate side of the grater. Use the different sides to grate coarsely for cheese, carrots or chocolate, medium for lemon rind, or finely for nutmeg.
• Knead: Gently work the mixture – usually dough – together to a ball with your hands, then put it on a board and squeeze and press until it forms a ball without any cracks. For bread, you hold it with one hand, use the heel of the other to stretch the dough away from you then fold it back over itself and keep repeating the process until it is smooth and elastic.
• Mash: Use a potato masher or fork. Press the ingredient against the sides and base of the bowl or pan so it is forced through the gaps in the fork or masher to form a smoothish paste.

TIP For potatoes or other cooked veg add a knob of butter or margarine and give them a good beat with the masher or a wooden spoon once mashed to make them fluffy.

• Pare: Cut thin shreds of rind off something with a small, sharp knife.
• Ovenproof: Not surprisingly, a dish or pan that can go in the oven. Pyrex is fine. Watch out for Bakelite handles on any of your pans; they are not ovenproof. This is not the same as ‘flameproof’.
• Roll: Dust the work surface with flour to stop it sticking and roll the pastry or dough firmly but evenly with a rolling pin (or clean milk or wine bottle), always rolling away from you. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat.

TIP Don’t roll from side to side as it stretches the dough, which will then shrink when you cook it.

• Slice into rings: To slice an onion into rings, don’t bother to peel it, just cut it across in slices the thickness you want, then remove the outer two layers and separate the rest into rings. Discard the ends.
• Separate an egg: The easiest way is to break the egg on to a saucer. Then hold an egg cup or half the egg shell over the yolk and strain the white into a separate container.
• Whip/whisk: Use a balloon whisk to beat the mixture in a circular motion, making sure you lift the mixture up with the whisk as you go to incorporate as much air as possible.