Cook and Brew.

The husband wished for any chicken dish for dinner that has sauce or any that isn’t dry or fried. So here come my cookbooks to the rescue. But I halted for a while when I encountered the term “Baste“.

Wikipedia defines “Basting is a cooking technique, and usually involves cooking meat with either its own juices or some type of preparation such as a sauce or marinade. The meat is left to cook, then is periodically coated with the juice or marinade as it cooks.”

This term can often be used around the holiday season when the Thanksgiving turkey comes out. Roast lamb or chicken are often basted with the juices in the pan during cooking, in order to keep the meat moist and for an added flavor. Several liquids may be used for basting meats such as broth, melted butter, pan drippings, or a combination of these ingredients.

This process sets the color of vegetables, lets you easily peel fruits such as onions, tomatoes, plums, peaches and slip the skins off nuts such as almonds, and prepare vegetables for canning or preserving.. The food does not cook all the way through. It’s just partially cooked in boiling water for a minute or so, so crisp texture is preserved.

Anyone trying to cook for the first time may be a little hesitant on following a recipe because of confusing cooking terms. I remember the first time I tried to cook a lunch meal, I had to scour the definition on the web the term “blanch” because I totally forgot what my Home and Economics teacher taught way back my grade school years. You see, we grew up with a household help who cooked for us while we studied so basically, I was really clueless on cooking and it’s only when I got married that I was forced to mingle with kitchen stuffs and cooking utensils. I’m far from being a good and expert cook so in my journey to learn more about learning cooking further, I’d be sharing in this blog the cooking terms or should I say “cooking jargons” that appear to us, newbie cooks.