Glossary     ( Q to S )

Radish
  a herbaceous plant with a thickened tap root.  The best known varieties are the round, red, bulbous type, but there are also bi-coloured and white radishes.  Old roots loose their flavour.

Rampe leaves
  used in Malaysian or Indonesian dishes.  Can be difficult to obtain.

Red Kidney Beans
  see Kidney Beans

Red Cabbage
  closed-head type of cabbage with smooth, green and red surrounding leaves, and a firm round to conical, closed, red head.  The red colour varies in intensity with the variety.

Red Leaved Chicory
  small, round, red-leaved headswith either dark or white leaf veins.  The leaf tastes rather bitter.  Sometimes incorrectly called red lettuce.
 Use:
Eat raw with ordinary cabbage lettuce or crisphead lettuce.  The heads can also be baked or grilled.

Rhubarb
  long, juicy leaf stems, concave in cross section, green or red depending on the variety and the methord of cultivation.
The thickness of the stem and the acid content change with age and variety.  As they get older they become more acid and more fibrous.  Early rhubarb, forced in the dark, has a light-red stems that cooked easily and are less acid than rhubarb grown in the open.
 Use
Cut the leaf stems into pieces to make stewed fruit, jam or compote.  Also used to make wine.

Rice
  Wild
from North America, but not a member of the rice family.  It is expensive and difficult to cultivate, but has a distinctive flavour.
   Kekulu
this wholegrain rice with its unusual red bran layer is a special variety grown exclusively in Sri Lanka.
   Brown
this rice has been hulled but the bran layer of the grain remains, providing more fibre and nutrients than white rice.
It has a nutty flavour and texture and takes much longer to cook.
   Basmati
an elegant, long grained rice which is inherently fragrant and sweet.  It comes from the foothills of the Himalayas and is particularly well suited to spicy foods such as the Indian one-pot dish biriyani.  
  This rice is ideal for use in rice salads, where the grains need to be light, fluffy and well separated.
   Patna
with grains that stay separate when cooked, it's also suitable for rice salads and pilaffs.  Patna is a really all purpose rice which is now widely grown in the United States.  Available in both white and brown forms, it's ideal to serve as an accompaniment to meat and fish dishes. A particularly good choice for stuffings.
   American Long Grain  ( Carolina rice )
available in both brown and white forms, and is suitable for both sweet and savory dishes.  With a slightly higher absorbency rate than other long grained rices, this variety is a good choice for the stuffing of vegetables.
   Thai Fragrant Rice  ( jasmine rice )
a very popular long grain rice, with a slight fragrance of jasmine and a fluffy texture, it's a particular favourite with both Thais and Vietmanese

Rice Bean
  small seeded, tropical pulse with wide variation in colour.  
 Use
In both soups and pulse dishes (soaked first).  Can also be used for bean sprouts.

Rind
  see Zest

Rocket
  tongue shaped leaves and creamy-white four petalled flowers, both the leaves and flowers are excellent in salads.  The leaves can also be cooked as with spinach.

Roselle
  a fibrous plant with red stems and pointed fleshy capsules.  The capsules may be red and very acid.  The unripe red fruits are used for making sorrel syrup, sorrel beer and sorrel jam.

Rosemary
  see Herbs

Roux
  a blending of flour and butter.  The butter is melted in a saucepan, and the flour is stirred in until the mixture is stiff.

Runner Bean
  long, fairly narrow, flattish oval, green pods, with a slightly rough skin.  A string forms on the front and back seams as the pod gets older.  

Saffron  ( kesar )
 the most expensive of all spices, saffron strands are the stamens of a type of crocus ( a flower ).
It gives dishes a rich, golden colour, as well as adding a distinctive, slightly bitter taste.
 Some recipes suggest substituting turmeric for saffron, but though the colours are similar, the flavours are very different.
 Saffron is sold as a powder or as strands, the strands have the better flavour.

Sage
  see Herbs

Salad Burnet
  see Herbs

Salad Rocket
  fine leaf vegetable with a good flavour when harvested young.  Old leaves are bitter and tough.

Sambal Oelek
   a paste made from ground chilies and salt.

Sarepta Mustard
  see Mustard Greens

Savory
  see Herbs

Savoy Cabbage
  crinkled and deeply veined leaves, classified as green or yellow by the leaf colour.
 Use
Finely slice and boil, also pickled.

Scallions
 see Onions

Scarlet Runner
  see Runner Bean

Sea Aster
  Oblong fleshy leaves arranged in rosettes, about 4-5 inches / 12cm long.  They are gathered at an early stage for eating.  In summer the leaves of the flowering plants are tough and tasteless.
  Usually served with seafood, oysters and mussels in particular.

Seakale
  open leaf cabbage with long, bare, leaf stalks and wavy bluish-green leaves.  The juicy stems are eaten and are blanched by earthing up the plants.  These blanched stems have a pleasant cabbage flavour.

Seakale Beet
  see Swish Chard

Self Blanching Celery
  see Winter Celery

Sesame seeds  ( til )
there are two types, black and white.  With a rich, nutty flavour. Indigenous to India.

Sieva Bean
  see Lima Bean

Sinkwa
  club-shaped fruits of a climbing plant with a strong and unpleasant smell.  The green fruits are up to 24 inches / 60cm long with ten sharp ribs running lengthwise.
 Use
Boil or stew the young fruit and eat as a vegetable.

Smallage
  see Herbs

Snow peas
 see Mange Tout

Sorrel
  see Herbs

Soy Sauce
   made from fermented soy beans.  The light sauce is saltier and generally used with white meat and the dark variety with red meat.

Soya Bean
  dry pulse, rather fine, oval to round.  generally creamy-white, but there are also green and red-seeded varieties.

Spinach
  A rapid growing annual plant, with the green leaves eaten when young.  Do not keep any left-overs of cooked spinach, as the nitrate in the leaf can be converted into a poisonous nitrite.
  Use:
Wash thoroughly and eat raw, boiled or steamed.
 

Spinach Beet
  Green or red leaf vegetable.  The young leaf is cut off just above ground level, and the cut stem produces new shoots, so that after two or three weeks the leaf can be harvested again.
  Use:
Lightly boil young leaf and eat like spinach.

Spring Greens
  see White Cabbage

Spring Onions  ( scallions, green shallots, salad onions )
  see Onions

Sprouting Broccoli
  quite short, fleshy flower stems with fully developed green flower buds, forming a firm, single head.  The flower buds are generally green, but there are some varieties with a purplish tinge.

Star Anise
  a dried star shaped fruit of an evergreen tree.  It is used sparingly in Chinese cooking and has an aniseed flavour.

Suet
   the hard, white fat that surrounds the kidney in beef and mutton.  Available packaged.

Sugar
   Granulated
refined white table sugar
   Crystal
see granulated
   Brown
a partially refined soft finely granulated sugar with molasses present which gives it its characteristic colour.
   Caster
a refined white finely granulated sugar, much used in cooking.

Sugar Peas
  flat pods.  The older type is light green with poorly developed seeds, harvested very young. The newer variety, the String Pea, has thick-walled light and dark green pods with well developed seeds.

Sultanas
   seedless white raisins

Suriname Amaranth
  see Chinese Spinach

Swede
  rather angular, tall, round turnips with yellow or white flesh.  The yellow-fleshed varieties are mainly intended for eating fresh, whilst the white-fleshed are generally sent for commercial processing.

Sweet Bracken
   see Sweet Cicely in Herbs

Sweet Cicely
  see Herbs

Sweetcorn
  ears with soft, smooth, yellow grains, tasting juicy and sweet if harvested at the right time.

Sweet Fern
  see Sweet Cicely in Herbs

Swiss Chard
  Biennial with large leaves that may be red or light to dark green.  The thick, wide, ribbed leaf stems are eaten.
  Use:
Remove the soft tissue from the inside of the leaf, cut the leaf stems into pieces and boil or stew.