I decided to make a video of how to flute mushrooms. Check it out.
Showing posts with label knife skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knife skills. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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Monday, May 3, 2010
Knife Skills II: Chiffonade
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What is a chiffonade? It's both a technique and the result of doing that technique...
When a recipe calls for a chiffonade of an herb what they're asking for are thinly shredded leaves of that herb. Usually done with Basil, it can be used on a variety of foods.
First you take whatever herb you want to chiffonade (in this case Kaffir Lime Leaves)...
...and you stack leaves with the largest ones on the bottom...
...roll them up like a cigar...
...then start cutting thin strips...
...and voila! Chiffonade!
You would usually do this when you don't want to bruise your herbs. Works great for basil on a caprese salad or if you want to slice up some green leafy vegetables like chard for sauteeing.
When a recipe calls for a chiffonade of an herb what they're asking for are thinly shredded leaves of that herb. Usually done with Basil, it can be used on a variety of foods.
First you take whatever herb you want to chiffonade (in this case Kaffir Lime Leaves)...
Read On...
...and you stack leaves with the largest ones on the bottom...
...roll them up like a cigar...
...then start cutting thin strips...
...and voila! Chiffonade!
You would usually do this when you don't want to bruise your herbs. Works great for basil on a caprese salad or if you want to slice up some green leafy vegetables like chard for sauteeing.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Knife Skills I: Fluting Mushrooms
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I'm always impressed with the details in cooking, but what always gets me is how chefs consistently make their food uniform during prep. How do they make it so even? How long have they been working on their knife skills? Does it even matter?
When you thin
k about it, it really does. When the food is the same shape and size, it cooks uniformly and you avoid having things being done at different times. Plus, it just plain looks more appetizing. But moreover, good knife skills goes deeper than that. Uniformity means that the cook put time into the food and it's a way to tell the diner that they're worth the trouble. It shows that the cook takes detail seriously.
In my quest to better my knife skills, I've decided to start a series of posts dedicated to different techniques. So with my first post in the series, I wanted to do something challenging: fluting mushrooms.
So what does a fluted mushroom even look like?
Fluted Mushroom caps (not mine)
When you thin
k about it, it really does. When the food is the same shape and size, it cooks uniformly and you avoid having things being done at different times. Plus, it just plain looks more appetizing. But moreover, good knife skills goes deeper than that. Uniformity means that the cook put time into the food and it's a way to tell the diner that they're worth the trouble. It shows that the cook takes detail seriously.In my quest to better my knife skills, I've decided to start a series of posts dedicated to different techniques. So with my first post in the series, I wanted to do something challenging: fluting mushrooms.
So what does a fluted mushroom even look like?
Fluted Mushroom caps (not mine)It really doesn't do anything for cooking, but it makes them look cool and its a pretty hard cut to learn and cook. You need a really sharp paring knife and patience.
First you take a mushroom:
Then you take your sharpest paring knife and cut out trenches by moving the blade along the skin of the cap:
This...
To this
First you take a mushroom:
Then you take your sharpest paring knife and cut out trenches by moving the blade along the skin of the cap:
This...
To thisThen you repeat the pattern around the cap:
And eventually you end up with this:
And eventually you end up with this:
It looks pretty cool and it took me forever to get the pattern down. I'm pretty excited about it though.
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