Culinary Terms O
Oat Bran – The coarse outer layer of the oat, removed in the milling process. Oat bran is used in cooking and is regarded as a good source of soluble fibre. It can be added to bread, muffin, and biscuit (cookie) dough’s, to hamburgers, rissoles and meat loaves, and is often eaten at breakfast sprinkled on cereal or chopped fruit.
Oat Cake – A cake of unleavened bread made from oatmeal, water, and a small amount of fat. Traditionally in northern England dallops of dough were cooked on a hot griddle until firm, then hung up until crisp and dry. In Scotland and Wales thin rounds of oatmeal paste were cooked slowly in a cool oven.
Oatmeal – Ground oats used as a breakfast cereal and in baking. Coarse and medium oatmeal is used for porridge (as is rolled oats) and in sausage mixture, such as the Scottish haggis. Fine oatmeal is used in pancakes, muffins, and other baked goods.
#Oeufs à la Neige (Eggs in the Snow) – A dessert of French origin consisting of egg-sized spoonfuls of meringue poached in vanilla-flavoured sweetened milk, drained and placed on top of a rich custard sauce made from the poaching milk.
Orange – A round citrus fruit with a bright orange skin and juicy, orange-coloured, segmented flesh. Orange is eaten fresh as a fruit, chopped and added to fruit salads, cooked in both sweet and savoury dishes and made into marmalade; its juice is a favourite at breakfast; and its rind is used fresh or dried to flavour desserts, cakes and savoury sauces. There are three main types of orange: sweet oranges, including the large, thick-skinned navel (named for the navel-like growth at the blossom end) and the smaller, thin-skinned Valencia, are used for juicing and as a snack and dessert fruit; bitter oranges, including the Seville, which used to make marmalade and tangy sauces; and blood oranges, with sweet, juicy, blood-red flesh, eaten as a dessert fruit and used for juicing.
The orange originated in southern Asia and has been cultivated in China for at least 4,000years. The fruit was known to the Romans and grew in the ancient Middle East, where bitter oranges preserved in their skins in sugar may well be the forerunner of today’s marmalade. The Moors planted orange orchards in Spain from the eighth century on. The Spanish planted oranges in America in Florida in the sixteenth century. The fruit is now grown in tropical and subtropical region worldwide. Oranges are available fresh all year-round, and are also sold canned; orange juice can be bought freshly squeezed or as a concentrated; orange peel is sold dried and candied.
Orange Flower Water – A fragrant liquid made from neroli, an essential oil extracted from sweet-scented blossom of the bitter orange tree. Intensely #flavoured, it is added sparingly to sponge cakes and confectionery (candy) and is popular in the Middle Eastern cooking in pastries and syrups.
Oven Fry – To bake food in a hot oven so that it has the appearance and taste of fried food, but not the fat content. The food is brushed lightly with oil, butter, or margarine or coated with seasoned flour or breadcrumbs before cooking.
