When I first started cooking, an unfamiliar cooking term in a recipe was enough to turn me off from it. As I've gotten more confident in the kitchen, I started feeling confident enough to tackle unfamiliar prep techniques as well. Below are a few easy techniques that will add in understanding a recipe and getting the correct result from your food.
Chiffonade (chiff-uh-NOD) - cut into small ribbons. For instance, I chiffonade fresh basil to top our pizzas every now and then. You take your washed and dried basil leaves and stack them together. Starting from one side, roll the stack up; placing the seam side down on your cutting board, start slicing through the roll of leaves. You will have perfectly ribbonned herbs in a fraction of the time. Mediterranean stuffed chicken breasts
Lardon (lar-DOHn) - cut into small strips, usually refers to meats like bacon. This is easiest to do with some kitchen shears - just take your slices of bacon and cut thin pieces across the strips. If using a knife, this works best on very cold bacon.
Temper - to slightly warm an ingredient before adding it to a hot pan, reducing the risk of an undesirable texture, taste, or flavor. This usually deals with eggs. If you add eggs to a hot pan, you are going to start scrambling them. Adding a bit of the cooking liquid slowly while stirring quickly will help to bring your cold eggs up to your cooking temperature without scrambling them. Bacon and eggs pasta
These are the three that come to the forefront in my mind because I just typed up some recipes using them. If there are any more terms you'd like to have clarified, feel free to let me know!!
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