Translating recipe speak to bloke speak Recipe writers assume that everyone knows standard cooking terminology - which they clearly don't, especially guys.
 | What is blanching?
BLANCHING is briefly cooking vegetables and stopping the cooking with ice water. For instance you could throw some asparagus or zucchini or carrots into boiling water for thirty seconds or a minute then drain the vegetables quickly and put them into a bowl of very icy water. The ice bath both stops the cooking and maintains a brilliant colour. |
 | What is softening?
SOFTENING is when you cook vegetables, usually things like leeks, onions or fennel in oil or butter over a low heat until they start to go soft, but you don’t let them go brown. |
 | What is colouring or browning?
COLOURING OR BROWNING is the opposite of softening. You cook the vegetables over a higher heat until they colour or start to go brown. |
 | What is sealing?
SEALING is not playing with a seal. It is briefly cooking meat, fish or poultry over very high heat for a few seconds until the surface area is cooked a little, or sealed. Sometimes the meat is cooked a little more so that it is browned and looks better in casseroles and stews. |
 | Bland is (very occasionally) best
NEUTRAL OIL is not a universal term, but is one used at aussiebarbie.com.au as shorthand for any oil that is good for frying, that has a high boiling temperature and doesn’t have a strong flavour to impart to food. Examples are peanut oil, vegetable oil, safflower oil and canola oil. Olive oil is a different thing all together and is generally not recommended for frying-good ones are relatively expensive and better saved for salads. Palm oil is seriously not good for you (a highly saturated fat) and dripping, which is rendered meat fat, adds miles of flavour but is clearly not recommended on any diets. |
 | Make salads the last thing you make
Some people make their salads before guests arrive, hours before they’re going to be eaten. Crazy when you think about it. Wash and dry your leaves and keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Mix the dressing in the bowl that you’re going to serve the salad in and toss the salad in the bowl just before you serve it so the leaves are still nice and crisp. |
 | Simple salad dressings
There are a million variations but keeping things simple, mix two parts olive oil with one part vinegar and some salt and pepper. The better the oil and vinegar, the better the result will be. You can use walnut or hazelnut oil, balsamic, red or white wine vinegars, lemon or lime juice. Adding a little mustard is standard practice and some people include sugar, for reasons best known to themselves. |
 | Cut the food, not your fingers
If you hold food with your fingers extended while wielding the knife with the other, you’re a good chance to cut yourself. If you hold the food with the last knuckle bent and run the blade of the knife down the last joint of your fingers, you may still have a career as a concert pianist. |
 | No bouncy bouncy
If you are doing a bit of slicing and chopping, put a tea towel under your chopping board so you don’t have two hard surfaces bouncing against each other. It’s such a little hint, but you will really notice the difference. |
 | Wok full of trouble
Woks work best with very high heat and not too much food in them. Stir frying is just that – frying. If you put too much food in a wok you will stew the food rather than frying it. If you have a lot to cook, do it in small batches. |
 | Same size, same cooking time
If you are cooking different things in your wok, cut them the same size so they take the same amount of time to cook. Harder vegetables like carrots may need blanching first so they take the same time as things like Asian greens or asparagus. |
 | Teach the satay sticks to swim
Satay sticks are made from wood, right? And wood, especially skinny little bits of wood burn, right? That’s why you have to soak wooden skewers for an hour in water before you thread the food on and throw them on the grill. They’re still made out of wood and they’ll still burn, but it will take a lot longer. |
 | Go low to cook slow
Barbecues are getting bigger and better all the time and we’re doing more interesting things than frying and grilling, notably slow cooking. The only way to slow cook on a gas barbie is to have heat both sides of the food and NONE directly under it – with the lid closed of course. No matter how low you turn the heat, a gas barbecue will burn the bum out of whatever you’re cooking if it’s there for an hour or more directly above the gas jets. |
 | Timing is everything
It’s a barbecue and you don’t want to get serious about things, but a little thought can make your barbie much more successful. Think about how long it will take to cook the steaks and rest them when you’re wondering when to start the vegetables. Snow peas take thirty seconds to cook, so they should be heading for the boiling water as the steaks are being put on plates. Also, think about plates and platters that you will need. It’s a lot easier having them out than searching for what you need when hungry guests are there and the food is getting cold. |
 | The art of the shopping list
First off you need a shopping list; it’s really dull running back to the shops to get the one thing that you forgot. Secondly, there’s a way to write one that makes shopping easier that is no harder than writing an ordinary list. Make six columns on a page-one for fruit and veg., one for the butcher, one for seafood, one for the deli, one for supermarket stuff and one for your cupboards at home to check that you have what you think you have. Then go through each recipe and write the ingredients into the appropriate columns. Easy peasy. |
 | Olive oils ain't always olive oils
Olive oil is a pretty confusing subject. It’s not easy to find really good ones and there is a lot of mis-information out there as well as some dodgy labeling and we don’t have the same quality standards as Europe so we get European rejects dumped here.
Tasting the product that you are going to buy is your safest bet. It should smell like a fruit shop and taste clean with a touch of pepper. |
 | Get meat in the mood
All meat, poultry and seafood should be at room temperature when you cook it. Just get it out of the fridge half an hour or so before you cook it and don’t leave it in blazing sunlight. If it’s cold, the outside of the meat will cook, but the inside will be raw. At room temperature, the meat will cook more evenly. |
 | Be strong, very strong. Turn the steaks just once
Everyone knows that it is man’s God given right to turn the steaks one hundred times if it’s his barbecue and he’s holding the tongs. The sign of real Australian manhood is resisting these natural urges and turning the steak just once. |
 | Have a little rest after the barbecue
As important as bringing meat back to room temperature before you cook it is resting it after it is cooked. The bigger the piece of meat, the more important it is and the longer the rest needs to be. Rest the meat in a warm place, covered loosely with foil (cover it tightly and it will steam in its own heat), or under a clean tea towel. Resting meat allows all the natural juices to settle back in the fibres of the meat. |
 | Cooked and raw don't mix
You don’t want to poison your friends, at least not accidentally, so never put the meat or poultry that you have just cooked back on the plate that it came to the barbecue on raw. |
 | Avoid sticky situations
If you put meat on to a barbecue plate that isn’t hot you’ve got problems. Firstly, the meat will stick, which is a nuisance. Secondly, the meat won’t caramelise properly which will affect its flavour. |
 | Careful where the fat goes
Lots of people cook meat with some fat on them like lamb chops on the char grill, because they think the fat will cook and drip away. Which it does, but it ignites on the naked flame of the char grill and burns what’s cooking above to a cinder. Try doing three quarters of the cooking on the flat grill and the last part on the char grill. |
 | Snag free snags
The secret is really just common sense. Buy good quality sausages from a regular source. Don’t prick them with a fork or all the natural juices and fat will run out. Cook them over low/medium heat on the flat grill, not the char grill. That’s all there is to it. |
 | Know your onions
Frying onions for steak sambos or burgers is easy. Keep a supply of liquid on hand. Beer, which is something frequently found at a barbecue is perfect for the job, though water will do. Fry the onions in a little oil and as they start to brown and dry out, splash a little liquid on and reduce the heat to medium. |
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