Big Sur Bakery Cookbook - Michelle Wojtowicz [99]
BROWNING VS. SWEATING
Browning means cooking on a hot pan with a small amount of fat to caramelize the exterior of the food (that is, turn it brown). We brown certain proteins before braising them, and we brown vegetables to deepen their flavor. When we pan-fry delicate foods such as fish, we brown the outside to enrich their taste and give them a crispy exterior while keeping the interior moist.
Sweating, on the other hand, means cooking in a pan with a small amount of fat until the food softens but doesn’t brown, which requires using low heat. When working with delicate vegetables like leeks, we prefer sweating to browning—it preserves and accentuates the vegetables’ subtle flavors that browning might destroy.
DEGLAZING
To deglaze means to add a small amount of liquid to a pan in which you just browned or sautéed something; its purpose is to dislodge any particles of flavor that might be sticking to the pan and sometimes to add a desirable new flavor. After adding a small amount of water, wine, or stock, use a wooden spoon to scrape up any stuck brown bits. Deglazing adds another dimension to the dish; it’s so effective that we often deglaze a pan several times.
GRILLING
Grilling is Big Sur Bakery’s favorite technique—the grill makes us feel like we’re having a cookout every night and provides an adrenaline rush that comes from literally cooking with fire. We use our grill for everything from steaks to sardines, oysters, potatoes, vegetables, and squid—the list goes on and on. No other cooking method uses such direct exposure to fire, and the result is food with a flavorful blackened exterior and smoky undertones.
Using the grill can be challenging. The most important thing is to remember that you’re cooking at a very high heat, which means that your food needs to be prepared in relatively small portions; larger items will burn before they’re cooked all the way through.
HOW TO LIGHT AN OUTDOOR GRILL
We recommend using hardwood or hardwood lump charcoal for your grill (or barbecue). If you can find it, wood from oak, fig, or cherry trees is best. To light your grill, stack the wood or gather the charcoal in a pile in the center of the grill. (Once the food is on the grill, it’s too late to burn more wood or add more charcoal, so be sure to start with enough fuel for what you’re cooking.) To light, begin burning a small bundle of newspaper directly beside the wood or charcoal, and encourage the fire to spread by using a piece of stiff cardboard to fan air toward the center of the grill. Your goal is to create a red-hot coal base, not a bonfire. Once the grill is running hot, it’ll give off intense heat, making it almost unbearable to stand right in front of it. If this isn’t the case, wait. It usually takes about 30 minutes to preheat an outdoor grill. When the fire is ready, spread the coals so that you can cook over the entire grate, not just the center. (Food will cook faster toward the center of the grill, but it’s useful to have a few cooler spots toward the side. This way, once your dish is nicely caramelized on the outside, you can place it on the edge of the grate to finish cooking without burning.) Since every grill is different, use the cooking times recommended in our recipes as guidelines, not mandates.
MACERATING
Macerating means soaking fruit or vegetables in liquid or stirring in sugar so that they release their own juices and absorb the desired flavors. It’s a particularly effective way of preparing fresh fruit for dessert: just sprinkle it with sugar and let it sit for about 20 minutes until it releases its tasty juices. Macerating can also come in handy when the fruit is not optimal and needs a little intervention. You can macerate fruit in liquors like brandy, but be careful—alcohol might overwhelm the fruit’s delicate flavor.
ROASTING AND BAKING
Roasting and baking both use the same basic idea: using an oven to provide an enclosed chamber in which food is exposed to dry heat, caramelizing