The Vocabulary of Cooking....U

We are up to the "U's" now in our quest to learn the vocabulary of cooking.  Don't forget to look for the not-so-hidden recipe in today terms.

Let's do this, then:

Udon Noodles -  are Japanese wheat-flour noodles can be purchased either fresh or dried. They are often used in soups.

Udon noodles in soup

Ugli Fruit - is a Jamaican fruit with loose, yellow-green skin. The fruit is thought to be a cross between the tangerine and the grapefruit with a grapefruit-orange flavor.

Ugli Fruit

Umami - is a simultaneously sweet, salty and savory taste profile.

Unleavened - is a baked good, ie bread, that contains no agents to give them volume, such as yeast, baking powder, or baking soda.  Crackers are a form of a baked good that has no leavening.  So are tortillas.

Unleavened bread

Unmold - is to remove molded food from its container.

Unsalted Butter - is butter which contains no salt. Unsalted butter is more perishable than butter with salt.

Unsaturated Fat - is a  kind of fat that is in liquid form at room temperature.

Grapeseed Oil

Unsweetened Baking Chocolate - is chocolate that has no added sugar and is generally composed of 55% cocoa butter and 45% chocolate mass from the bean. It has an intense chocolate flavor that has to be tempered by sugar and other ingredients. 

Baking Chocolate

Upright Chicken Roaster - is a vertical, cross-braced metal stand used to roast poultry; prevents poultry from cooking in its own drippings.

Upright Roaster for Chicken

Upside-Down Cake - is a cake generally made by first covering the bottom of the baking pan with butter, sugar, and arranged fruit. A cake batter is then poured over the fruit. The baked cake is inverted onto a serving plate, which makes the fruit bottom the top of the cake.

Classic Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 LET'S MAKE CAKE!!!

You will need:

1/4 Cup Butter 

2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

9 slices pineapple (drained if using canned)

9 Maraschino cherries (optional)

1 1/3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1/3 Cup Shortening

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

3/4 Cup Milk

1 Egg

Here's What You Do:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered.

Just a few more letters of the alphabet to get through and we have completed our first lessons in culinary terminology.

Good for you for expanding your vocabulary.  Now go out and make something good.