Part IX: Back to Basics

It has been over 10 months since I changed topics.  I really like doing parties.

I have wanted to do this "chapter" for a couple of years.  Even before I went to culinary school, I knew a lot about cooking terms and techniques.  I assumed every adult capable of feeding themselves knew the same things.

Then I had to teach Roommate Smurf how to stir-fry.  As in, how to heat oil in a pan and push things around in it.  That evolutionary imperative to feed oneself passes some people by.  This served as a reminder that cookbooks and cooking blogs exist for a reason.  They aren't simply recipe files, they are teaching tools.  So, once in a while, I'm going to teach something that I thought everyone knows how to do, but they don't.  I'll explain terms, ingredients, and techniques that I thought were commonplace knowledge until I came upon someone who didn't know how to make white rice.  Not just "made white  rice badly", but didn't even know where to start!  And hopefully, readers who do know how to cook will pick up a trick or two they hadn't heard before.