Carajillo

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Carajillo is a Spanish cocktail combining coffee with brandy, whisky, or anisette. Legend has it that the drink dates back to the Spanish colonization of Cuba when the troops combined coffee with rum to give them courage (coraje in Spanish). In Mexico, carajillos are made with espresso and Licor 43 – a vanilla-flavored elixir with an aroma as intoxicating as the alcohol itself. The combination is shaken and poured over ice. They are perfect as a digestive after a great meal or to prepare for a long night ahead.

Veloute

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Velouté is one of the five “mother sauces” of French cuisine made from butter, flour, cream and stock. Similar to a bechemel, a veloute serves as a creamy conduit for just about anything including the mouth-watering filling for Cod stuffed Piquillo Peppers.

Bocadillo

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Bocadillo or bocata is a Spanish snack made on a baguette, cut lengthwise. It is a minimalist, low-cost staple in Spanish cuisine, stuffed with meat, ham, cheese, roasted peppers, tortilla de patata, or fish. They come without sauce, save for a quick rub of a cut tomato. If that sounds dry and boring, you have yet to experience the superior quality of Spanish ingredients. Less is definitely more in this case. Some classic options include chorizo, lomo embuchado (cured pork loin), jamon Serrano (cured ham), codfish, fried squid, and crab salad, and tuna salad.

Roux

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Roux – Melted fat (usually butter) to which flour has been added. A roux is used as a thickener for sauces and soups including three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, and espagnole sauce. This step is the foundation to developing a wide variety of dishes from gumbo to Basque Salsa Verde , scalloped potatoes, and cream of anything soup.

 

Mise en place

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Mise en place (pronounced MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French phrase which means “putting in place.” It’s one of the first lessons taught in culinary school and many novice cooks will spend countless hours honing their knife skills at this task. In home cooking, as in restaurants, it is used to refer to the process of organizing and arranging the ingredients and equipment that are required for meal preparation.

Tlacoyos

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Tlacoyos – Yet another variation on corn as a conduit for tasty toppings, the tlacoyo is an oval-shaped pre-Hispanic Mexican masa formation. There are many twists on the name depending on where you are in Mexico including tlayoyis, clacoyos, tlatloyos, tlayoyos and tlaoyos. Part of the core “antojitos” menu of Mexican street food, tlacoyos may be yellow or blue depending on the corn used for masa. Like sopes and gordas, they are thicker than corn tortillas and can be stuffed with beans, fava beans, cheese, chicharron or other ingredients. They can be fried or grilled but in most cases they are cooked on a large round metal griddle known as a comal. Prickly pear cactus (nopales), salsa, fresh onion, cilantro and aged cheese crumbles are common toppings.

Emulsify

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Emulsify. In the culinary arts, an emulsion is a union of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix company, like oil and vinegar. There are two sorts; temporary emulsions like a simple vinaigrette and permanent emulsions such as aioli which is stabilized by egg yolks. To create an emulsion, the droplets of one of the liquids must become evenly dispersed within the other liquid by slowly adding one ingredient to another while simultaneously mixing rapidly with a whisk or blender.

 

 

Sear

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Sear proteins for two simple reasons: rich flavor and juicy meat. Searing provides a juice-preserving shield that holds in moisture during subsequent cooking. More important to your taste buds, when meat touches a scorching hot pan, the surface instantly begins to brown through a process called the Maillard reaction. That golden brown coating then seeps its savory, nutty flavor into your fish, stew, braise or roast.

Learn how to achieve the perfect sear here.

 

 

Sweat

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Sweat – Sweating is the gentle heating of vegetables in a little oil or butter, with frequent stirring to evaporate liquids and yield tender, sometimes translucent, pieces. As compared to sautéing, sweating is done over a much lower heat, sometimes with a bit of salt, and making sure that little or no browning takes place. You will practice this step routinely making soups, stews and sauces that begin with a classic mirepoix.

 

 

Parboil

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Parboil – Parboiling is set apart from blanching in that you skip the polar bear plunge into icy water after the item it boiled. Parboiling is usually used to precook an item which will then be cooked another way such as braising, grilling or stir-frying. A classic example is the parboiling of bell peppers in advance of stuffing and then baking them. Some vegetable benefit from parboiling to eliminate bitterness, such as asparagus.