Guides
Discover our guides to menu planning, sustainability, seasonal and specialist ingredients… plus product reviews and tips to help you be a better cook. Keep scrolling for:
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Bulgur wheat
Bulgur (or bulgar) is a cereal made with wheat – usually durum wheat – that’s widely used in Turkish and Middle Eastern cooking.
Borlotti beans
Borlotti beans are popular due to their sweet flavour, meaty texture and soothing creaminess. If you’re using the dried kind, soak for eight hours before simmering gently for an hour and a half.
Clarified butter
Clarified butter is rendered butter once all the milk solids have been removed. When butter is melted, it separates into three layers. The top layer is a white frothy foam (the whey), to be skimmed and discarded. The bottom layer is the milk solids.
Couscous
Couscous is a versatile cereal made from semolina and water and is a popular alternative to rice and pasta. It's often used in salads and Middle-Eastern and North African cooking.
Cavolo nero
Cavolo nero originates from Tuscany and is also know as 'black kale' or 'Tuscan kale'. It's dark green colour makes it rich in iron whilst its thick leaves makes it a great addition to soups and casseroles.
Court bouillon
Court bouillon is a French liquor used for poaching fish and vegetables. The ingredients can vary but bouillons are usually fairly simple: water, wine or lemon, a bouquet garnet and salt.
Concassé
Concassé comes from from the French word 'concasser', meaning to crush or grind. Tomato concassé, for example, is a tomato peeled and deseeded then finely chopped or diced.
En papillote
The French term 'en papillote' means to wrap food in a parcel before baking in the oven. It helps seal in flavour, retain nutrition, and keeps everything moist as it cooks in its own steam.
En croûte
'En croûte' means, quite simply, ‘in a crust’. This French dish involves wrapping ingredients in a layer of pastry before baking in the oven.
Fricassée
Fricassée is – generally – a type of stew in which meat is cut up, braised and served in a creamy white sauce.
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