Toasted
Ingredients
These are used extensively in Yucatecan cuisine - toasting brings out
and intensifies flavors. Use these and add a special touch to your cooking.
Ingredients
you can toast:
Bell peppers
Chilies
Seeds
Dried herbs
Toasting: Heat the pan or griddle and put the ingredient on the hot surface. Move ingredient around often until you get the proper color or degree of doneness. Move to a cool container or surface to cool off.
- For tasted herbs (always use dried) and seeds (cumin, etc.), stop immediately at the first sign of smoke.
- Bigger ingredients like chilies or garlic cloves are toasted with the skin on and often left unpeeled even in the final dish.
In tasting, you want to watch the heat closely - if the heat is too high, you'll end up with ashes and biter taste. It's safer to be on the low side, even if it takes a little longer.
For herbs, always use a small frying pan with a nonstick or smooth surface that will allow the ingredient to slide around easily when you shake the pan. For other ingredients, a griddle works - you can keep things moving with a metal spatula or thongs.