Food preparation

Basting is a way of keeping meat moist while it is being cooked slowly, such as when it is being baked. You baste something when you pour a little liquid over it while it is cooking. Meat is usually basted with its own juices from the bottom of the pan, or with marinade.

Blanching is a way of preparing food by briefly immersing food in boiling water.

Brew means to steep, stew or ferment something, usually a drink. Beer is brewed using fermented yeast and malt.

Something is browned if it develops a brownish tint as it is baked. Browning is the very first stages of something being burnt, and usually means that the food is just cooked enough.

Clarified butter is butter that has had the milk solids removed.

You dissolve a solid in a liquid by mixing the solid around until it seems to disappear. Once the solid is completely dissolved, the resulting solution behaves exactly like a liquid. Solids won't dissolve in any liquid, they must be soluble in them. For example, table salt is soluble in water but not in oil.
Solids that do not dissolve in a liquid but are mixed into a liquid can be removed with a filter. Filtering is an effective way to remove very fine particles of dirt from water.

An emulsion is a mixture of two ingredients that wouldn't normally blend together, such as oil and water. Many sauces are emulsions.

Fried food is food that has been cooked in some kind of fat, usually cooking oil, over direct heat. Potatoes, chicken, and seafood are common fried foods.

Frying is a way of cooking food in a shallow pan over heat. Most things are fried in fat or oil.

Garnish is something that you put on top of food to make it look nicer. Garnishes can be eaten if you like, or they can be there just for decoration. Garnishes are usually some kind of herb, or a little sprinkle of ground spice.
The most common kind of garnish is a sprig of parsley.