Ultimate Cook Book_ 900 New Recipes, Thousands of Ideas - Bruce Weinstein [5]
9. Set aside… Only set something in the refrigerator if the recipe specifically asks you to do so. Otherwise, set the bowl or plate aside at room temperature, covering it with plastic wrap if the recipe calls for it.
10. In a warm, dry, draft-free place… In other words, set the dough or batter away from any heating or cooling vents, away from the stove, and never on top of the refrigerator. Our kitchen has a certain nook—farthest from the window, several feet away from the oven—that we’ve christened our “warm, dry place.” Investigate and claim your own. A pantry shelf? A back corner of the counter?
11. Until doubled in bulk. Yeast must produce carbon dioxide for a dough to rise, but doubling is not an exact science. You’re looking for a dough that has risen a little less than twice its original height in the bowl (the bowl does widen toward the top) and has a gently rounded puff. Another way to tell: if you press your fingers into the dough, the indentation you make will stay put.
12. Heat a skillet, saucepan, or pot… Do not heat a pan for a prolonged period of time; you may get the pan so hot that you ignite the oil when it’s poured in. Use common sense: you want the food to come in contact with a hot surface.
13. Swirl in the oil. In 99 out of 100 cases, the oil should be added after the pan has heated. Drizzle the oil all over the pan, then pick the pan up and tilt it back and forth to get the best coverage across the cooking surface.
14. Cook… To cook is to bring food into contact with heat. Once the food’s in the pan, keep everything as close to the heat as possible; don’t lift the pan off the heating element.
15. Until softened, until soft, or until translucent. Less a series of gradations than a set of visual cues, these directions refer to the way certain vegetables—onions, shallots, and celery, in particular—transform as they lose moisture over the heat. In most cases, lower the heat if you notice the vegetables turning brown at their edges before they’ve softened.
16. Stir… Use a wooden spoon, a pair of kitchen tongs, or a heat-safe silicone spatula. If you’re working with nonstick cookware, use only utensils approved for that surface.
17. With a fork. Whether stirring or fluffing, the point here is to break up clumps or grains so that the texture is coarse but uniform. A spoon will not do the job.
18. Whisk… Use a whisk. A good kitchen has at least two, a thin one for working in saucepans and a large, balloon-shaped one for whipping ingredients in bowls.
19. Mop… A term for the grill, “to mop” is to slather generously with sauce. Grilling mops, sold in cookware stores, are thick, coarse brushes that hold lots of sauce.
20. Stirring once in a while, occasionally, frequently, often, or constantly. These are the various gradations for how much attention you should pay to a mixture over the heat. None is a call to leave a pan unattended. Stir by moving a wooden spoon in arcs across the bottom of the pan, thereby scraping ingredients off the hot surface and exchanging them with those that have not been in direct contact with the heat. In a stew, the point is to keep elements (usually in suspension) from dropping to the bottom and sticking to the hot surface under the simmering liquid.
21. Until uniform. In other words, until the various components of the mixture are evenly distributed without, say, a pocket of cinnamon or a streak of salt.
22. Until aromatic. Spices and some oils need to be heated so that they’ll release their flavors; cook them until you can smell them. But do remember that chili oils will volatilize and the resulting vapors can burn your eyes. As a precaution, do not lean directly over the pot.
23. Until they give off their liquid and it reduces to a glaze. Mushrooms are a tight pack of moisture, held in fibrous chambers that quickly break down over heat. In most cases, the liquid would make a dish watery, so you want the mushrooms to give off most of their liquid (the mixture in the pan will be a little soupy); then you reduce this liquid to