Glazing is a cooking term that means to create a glazed surface on food.
A fruit tart can be glazed by brushing it with warm, strained jam or jelly. Vegetables can be glazed by cooking them with a small amount of water, butter and sugar, which coats them in a thick, glossy sauce; or simply by brushing them with melted butter once they're cooked to give them a shiny surface.
A stock glaze is a syrupy meat, poultry or fish stock that's reduced to concentrate the flavor; glazes are then added to sauces or used to baste dishes browning in the oven.
A turnip is a fleshy, white, bulbous root vegetable with a purple top that grows easily around the world and is eaten by man and beast alike.
Turnips are best consumed young and sweet, as like most of us they become bitter and coarse with age. Keep them in a cool place until you're ready to boil, steam, mash, glaze or purée them. Turnips can also be eaten raw.
European in origin, turnips are used frequently in Britain and France in stews and soups, including the traditional French pot-au-feu. Because they can absorb fat easily, they are often served with fatty meats such as duck.
Turnip greens are a soul food staple that may be boiled, sautéed, steamed or stir-fried.
Pomegranate molasses is made by heating pomegranate juice to evaporate its water, reduce its volume and concentrate its sweet and bitter taste and ripe fruity flavor.
You can mix the syrupy molasses into cocktails, add it to salad dressings, marinades, sauces and glazes, or just drizzle it over grilled or roasted meats. Finding a bottle of pomegranate molasses used to mean a trip to local Middle Eastern market, but now it's widely available at all kinds of grocery stores.
Recipe: Oysters With Pomegranate Mignonette (hogwash)
Recipe: Duck Breast With Pomegranate Glaze (Washington Post)
Look for smaller turnips with unblemished skin that are firm to the touch and heavy for their size. (Larger turnips tend to be woody and rough-tasting.)
If you can, buy turnips that still have their bright green tops and use them in the same way you use mustard greens.
Spring turnips are more delicate than their robust winter counterparts, and should not be left to languish in the vegetable bin.
Mirin, or rice wine, is a golden-colored Japanese cooking wine that was originally produced more than 400 years ago as a drinking wine but is now used as a condiment.
High in sugar and low in alcohol, it is made from sticky rice. A cousin of sake, it has a lower alcohol content (between 1% for Shin mirin and 14% for Hon mirin as opposed to 20%).
With an assertive flavor, mirin adds a sweet note to marinades, sauces (including teriyaki), glazes for grilled fish and other dishes. It has a pleasant aroma that is notable for its ability to mask the fishy smell of fish.
Shaoxing wine is a sweet, low-alcohol Chinese drinking and cooking wine that is often confused with Japanese mirin or sake.
Made from fermented sticky rice, yeast and water, it is named for its origin in Shaoxing, in the Zhejiang province of eastern China. When used in cooking it adds flavor to marinades, glazes and other dishes such as Chinese Drunken Chicken.
