Woman starting to braise culinary plant (4)
I believe the answer is:
herb
'culinary plant' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'woman starting to braise' is the wordplay.
'woman' becomes 'her' (pronoun for a woman).
'starting to' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'braise' is 'b'.
'her'+'b'='HERB'
(Other definitions for herb that I've seen before include "Plant used in medicine or for flavouring" , "Rosemary perhaps" , "Basil, for example, is one" , "Plant used for flavour" , "Parsley, for instance" .)