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Cooking techniques in the Mediterranean and beyond

Learn cooking techniques used in the Mediterranean diet kitchen on a daily basis. The description of all culinary methods is easy to understand. And the recipe examples make them real. I'd like to make your life simple, not the other way around.

For novice home cooks the term cooking techniques may sound dry and put them off —it sounds like hard work!

It's simply the general term that designates commons words such as frying, baking, roasting or grilling. But to cook with ease, you should know what you're doing. So it's essential to be aware of the cooking basics.

It's like learning to play piano. Once you know a technique well, you can focus on the creative element of the delicious Mediterranean recipes and experience the joy of cooking. I love this part of the cooking experience and hope you do to.

You'll see that some methods are unique or more popular around the Mare Nostrum, while we share others with different culinary heritages, maybe with yours.

If what you're looking for is rather cooking advice like how to peel tomatoes, cook pasta and so on, I explain such cooking techniques here.

Check back often for more cooking techniques. But lets start...

Baking

Baking is cooking food by dry heat in an oven. Traditionally the oven heat was wood, but nowadays the source of heat of most home ovens is usually gas or electricity. Bread and pastries are the most obvious foods cooked in the oven.

However, in the Mediterranean diet there are a lot more foods you cook in the oven such as fresh Mediterranean fish. The popular recipe bream baked in salt is noteworthy as it uses two cooking techniques at the same time: Baking and cooking in salt, an interesting Catalan cooking method.

Boiling

Boiling is the process of cooking ingredients immersed in water or another liquid that is heated until it begins to convert into gas. In short, when you see bubbles and steam rising from the cooking pot, the water or liquid is boiling.

Boiling is one of the most simple cooking techniques, and most universal for that matter. Typical examples are boiling potatoes, Italian pasta, chick peas and rice.

Deep Frying

Deep frying is cooking food immersed in hot cooking oil or sometimes fat. For deep frying you can use a deep fryer, a wok or a frying pan. Fritters are one example of a Mediterranean recipe that uses deep frying.

Escalivar

Escalivar in Catalan basically means roasting sweet peppers and eggplants in a bed of hot embers or ashes, or over a wood fire.

It is an old and popular cooking technique in the Catalan Countries that has given the name to the escalivada dish: Roasted vegetables with a superb smoky taste —another perfect excuse for a outdoors wood fire and a summer lunch party.

The modern way of cooking escalivada is using a wood-burning grill or even a barbecue. But for cooking escalivada indoors you can use the regular kitchen oven. The roasted vegetables are still delicious.

Frying

Frying is cooking food in hot cooking oil, lard or ghee. The cooking tool for frying is usually an open shallow frying pan or a skillet. You can fry sardines or onion rings, for example.

The Western Mediterranean diet uses mostly olive oil for frying. It appears to be the best vegetable oil for this cooking technique, because it keeps most of its healthy properties at high temperatures. It also builds a film around the food that prevents it to absorb excessive oil.

Although many people don't know yet, the Eastern Mediterranean diet often uses clarified butter instead of olive oil for frying. Samneh is similar to the healthy Indian ghee so praised by the ancient Ayurveda medicine. Indeed, it's a reliable alternative to olive oil.

Grilling

Grilling is cooking food over high direct heat. You place the food on a metal rack or grate at about 4 inches (10 cm) above the hot embers or other source of heat so that the food is cooked by the intense direct heat.

The grilling cooking methods are superb for cooking wild mushrooms, lamb chops, and seasonal vegetables, for instance.

Like escalivada, grilling cooking techniques are a great incentive for gathering a few friends and throwing an informal party. What could be better?