Amalgamate

Mix different elements or condimets until they are totally joint.

To get that this vegetable gives off the bitter juice and avoid stinging, once cut, leave it sprinkled with salt for one hour and a half. Then wash, strain and cook following its recipe.

Bain marie

Cook or heat any food introducing one recipient or mould into a bigger one with hot water, avoiding this water to boil.

When you are going to cook in the oven, you have to put it on beforehand 10 minutes before programming it at the temperature pointed at each recipe.

Word that defines a tied bouquet of aromatic herbes and vegetables (fresh or dried) and that is used to flavour some dishes, sauces or marinades. You should remove it before serving.
The bouquet garní is made of parsley, a leaves of laurel and a bit of thyme.

Fry any food in a soft heat with any grease.

Cut in "brunoise" System of cutting greens and vegetables (first laminate in thin strips and next and in the opposite direction in veru small dices).

Cook any ingredient, generally covered with grease (olive oil) at a very low temperature (70º aprox) since it is soft but without colour

Cook any food very slowly with different ingredients (depending on each recipe) that give it a bright look. In pastrymaking, cover a cake with sugar, gelatine, ham... to get a bright look.

To desalt and soak correctly the cod, you should place it a glass, earth or plastic vessel with the skin upwards and cover it totally with water. Cover and leave it with this water in the fridge from 8 to 12 days. 24 hours before cooking it, wash it and change water from 1 to 4 times (depending on the thickness).
This last operation must be done out of the fridge. When it is at its point, strain and dry very well.

Crush in the mortar different ingredients (depending on each recipe) since they become a very thin paste. Dissolve with any liquid and incorporate in the dish at the moment pointed in the recipe.

Way of cutting in very thin strips greens, vegetables, citric skins and other ingredients.

Make a very dark caramel (nearly black), remove from the heat and add little by little with care water until we have a dense syrup. make it boil again and then let it cool and keep in a pot. If it is very dense when cold, heat it again and add a bit more of water. On the contrary, if when cold it is too liquid, heat it and let it boil until it gets thicker.

Retire the coat of oil and grease that is on a sauce with the help of a spoon. You should do it before thickening it.

2 tablespoons of oil 1 big carrot, cut in slices 100 gr of mushrooms, cut in slices 1 big onion, cut in slices 1 little bunch (laurel, thyme and parsley) 1 red tomatoe cut in pieces 1 clove of garlic, chopped 10 or 12 "moixarnons", soaked Ground pepper A pinch of salt 3/4 kg of veal bones, cut in small pieces 2'5 l. of water or light stock
Sauté in a saucepan all the veal bones, add vegetables and mushrooms and let them take a nice dark colour. Then, incorporate tomatoe, soaked mushrooms, garlic and the bunch. Cook for some minutes, season lightly with salt and pepper and pour water or stock. Let it boil very slowly for two hours. Strain and thicken the quantity of sauce you need with a bit of cornflour dissolved in cold water. This sauce is the base of another big number of dark sauces. Adding little quantities (1 or 2 tablespoons) it raise the taste of meat dishes, paste dishes, soups... You can keep it in the fridge in a glass jar up to 8 days or you can freeze it in small quantities.
You get 3/4 l. of sauce once strained. Then you must thick it.

Add any liquid (water, stock, wine..) to the extracts or caramelized juices of the botton of the recipient in which any food has been cooked or browed so to take them off and dissolve them.

Join, thicken or mix a sauce or liquid by the action of a beater (by hand or electronic).

Name given to the way of cutting fish. Divide fish in two backs, separating them from the central bone and then divide them in pieces of 150 gr per person.

Fish stock

1 onion 1 carrot Some grains of black pepper Some mushrooms 50 cc of dry white wine A small bouquet garní Bones of fish Crabs or other shellfishes 1 l. of water Put all the ingredients in a saucepan in cold. Season very lightly and let it boil during 30 minutes semicovered. Remove and strain.
The sole bones make the fish stock thiner. It must not boil more than 30 minutes because it can become bitter. To make it more concentrated you can leave it boiling after you have strained it.

Flame

It consists in making burn any liqueur (first heat it very softly on heat in a little saucepan or a ladle, light it on and pour it very slowly on the dish or dessert) to evaporate the alcohol and leave only the aroma.

Fry

Cook any food in a frying pan with hot oil.

Fry lightly

Cook any food with oil on a low heat since it is lightly brown.

Gelatine

Solid preparation that is sold in leaves or in powder to set or make consistent different preparations that can be sweet or salted.
To use it, the leaves must be soaked in cold water during some minutes to soften them, strain them very well and then add tehm into a hot preparation and mix well until they are totally dissolved; also, you can put it in a pan with a bit of liquid and dissolve it at a very low temperature to add it into a cold preparation, mixing it very well.
To get a correct use you must leave your preparation in the frigge for some hours until the gelatine has set.

Great the superficial part of a fruit.

When adding cream to a hot mixture it is better to heat it to avoid curdling.

If they are new or "pardinas" it is not necessary to soak them previously. Put them in cold or warm water and when it begins boiling, strain and refresh them. Turn them again to the casserole cover with water 3 cms onwards its volume and add 1 onion, 1 carrot, some cloves of garlic, a bit of oil and 1/2 coffee spoon of sweet paprika. Cover and boil slowly. Season at the end of cooking.

Submerge and maintain any food in a cold liquid (wine, vinegar, liqueur, syrup...) during some hours.

"Moixarnons"

Dried mushrooms that are used to flavour or accompany meat, dishes, rice, paste and greens. For their use they must be soaked during 2-3 hours in cold water.

Name that has the frying saucepan that is used to make rices or noodles; it has a wide and flat bottom, with two handles and it can be made of cast iron, non-stick material, stainless steel or tinplate. This container gives the name to the famous rice dish PAELLA.

It is a suitable pastry to cover tart moulds. Indistinctly, this pastry is used for sweet or salty tarts. To make it easier its better that all the ingredients are very cold. Ingredients: 200 gr of flour 1 coffeespoon of thin salt 1 teaspoon of castor sugar 90 gr of cold butter, cut in dices of 1 cm
1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon of lemon juice From 1 to 4 tablespoons of very cold water
Mix in a glass the egg yolk, lemon juice and 1 or 2 tablespoons of cold water. Sift in a bowl flour, salt and sugar and mix butter. Grind with the electrical triturator or robot since flour-butter have the texture of breadcrumbs. Pour on working table and incorporate the prepared liquid. with the tip of fingers work flour very lightly to make all it wet (adding a bit more water if necessary) and we can put it together with easiness till forming a ball. Press very lightly with the hand palm to make it thin and then make a ball. Cover with plastic film and let it in the fridge for 1 hour. Sprinkle very lightly the working table and the rolling pin with flour and spread the paste as thin as possible giving the size of the mould and avoiding it to stick on the table or rolling pin. Cover the mould with the pastry, cut the edges and prick carefully the base. Put in the freezer or fridge 15-20 minutes (in this way it does not shrink). Then we can fill it (as pointed at each recipe) and bake since it is cooked and golden. Generally this pastry is precooked "in white" before filling it. That is, bake it without filling to get that the pastry has colour and consistency. If we cook it "in white" we must cover the bottom with aluminium paper and a weight (lentils, beans, stones...) to avoid the bottom to raise. Bake it at 200º 10-15 minutes, remove from the oven, remove the weight and paper and then fill and bake as before.

Marinate fruits, vegetables or any food in a liquid that penetrates on them and acts as a preserver (vinegar...).

Point of softness that gets butter (the same texture as a pomade) avoiding that it becomes liquid.

For a good result, it must be used non-frozen. You must spread sprinkling the working table and the rolling pin with flour. It must be cut with a net cut to avoid that the sheets stick each other. When painting it with beaten egg, try not to paint edges for the same reason.

Dry dark wine, very flavoury. It can be sustituted by dry sherry.

Evaporate any liquid since having a greater concentration.

Roast lightly

Roast very quickly in very hot oil or butter to avoid that the food we are going to cook gives off its juices. After roasting them lightly we follow cooking as pointed in the recipe.

Roast vegetables

Roast the skin of the vegetables in the flame or grill. Remove them and let them covered so that that the steam generated during the cooking make them soft.

Romesco dried peppers or "nyores"

They are peppers from different varieties (the "nyores" are sourer, the peppers are sweeter), dried at the air so to keep them during all the year.
To use them they must be hydrated during some hours in cold water, then dry them and scrape the pulp. next, add it to crushings, sauces...
Nowadays, the pulp of these peppers is comercialized with the name of "piparra".

Roux

Mixture of hot butter with flour (proportion depends on each recipe) that is used to thicken a product of sauce.

Scald

Seal (Sauté)

Short stock

Sift

Smear

Squeeze

Suquet

Syrup at 32º

Put in a saucepan water and sugar (the same weight, 100 cc + 100 gr, for example) on heat. When it begins boiling, remove from heat and let it cool. This syrup is used in confectionery to sprinkle on sweets (only syrup or a mixture of syrup and liqueur at 50%).

Thicken

Prepare a base of water and cornflour and add it little by little (in more or less quantity depending on the thickness we want) to a boiling sauce to make it thick until this one has a creamy and thin look (1 tablespoon of cornflour and 1/2 coffeecup of cold water).

Vegetal or light stock

Put in a pot 3 litres of cold water, salt, 2 carrots, 1 leek, 1/2 turnip, 1 small branch of celery (white part only), 1 onion and 1 potatoe. When it begins boiling, skim and following the boiling semicovered and slowly during 1 hour and 1/2. Strain. We can add at the same time as vegetables some chicken giblets or veal bones to give to it more flavour and taste.