How to.
PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON
Semantics – especially in the restaurant world – play a huge part in how tempting a dish sounds. We get all glossy-eyed over pannacotta, but call it ‘milk-based jelly’ and it loses its appeal somewhat. As a result of the impact the right wording can have on food’s allure, we end up with nonsense phrases such as ‘hand-cooked’ and ‘oven-baked’.
At first glance, ‘braised’ seems like little more than a flowery word for ‘simmered’ (much like how ‘seared’ sounds fancier than ‘fried’ and ‘poached’ is sexier than ‘boiled’), but braising is such a special technique it does deserve its own term. It’s also something that, once mastered, can be used endlessly in the kitchen without the need for precise timings or quantities.
SO... WHAT IS BRAISING?
It’s unusual in that it has several steps to it. This separates braising from single-step techniques like frying (put food in hot oil), boiling (put food in hot water) and baking (put food in hot oven). To braise, you must first fry, then introduce enough liquid to partially submerge (but not fully cover). Once the dish has bubbled away for a while, the result boasts all the caramelised beauty of the Maillard reaction, together with the tender succulence of simmering.
The technique is almost always associated with large chunks of red meat or pot roasts: dishes such as stews, ragùs and some curries technically fall into the ‘stewing’ category as they are generally completely submerged in liquid after frying, but it’s essentially the same method. Don’t discount vegetable or fish dishes from the braising world, though. As long as they’re robust and won’t disintegrate once the liquid is added (think root veg, cabbage, leeks, mushrooms and aubergines, or meaty fish such as monkfish, squid and octopus), you can create some brilliant braised dishes with them.