Is this how you chop an onion? It brings tears to your eyes, just watching right? Admit it. You hate chopping onions. If done right, dicing an onion ensures even cooking and makes your dish look professional. If you’ve never attended cooking school, chances are that you’ve never learned this easy method. It only takes two simple cuts.
Before you begin, make sure that your knife is very sharp, so that it slides easily through the onion. When you sue a dull knife, it crushes the onion, releasing more tear-inducing fumes. Half the onion from top to bottom. This will give each side a flat side to place on the board. Then trim the stem leaving the root intact. Keep the root intact to hold the onion together. Peel off the skin. And starting with one half, face the root end away from you on the cutting board. Hold the onion firmly on either side then space it according to the desired thickness of the cut, and don’t cut all the way through the root. Next make vertical cuts. With your knife parallel to the cutting board, slice the onion, spacing according to your desired dice size.
To dice a potato, you use a sharp chef knife to trim the potato on all sides so that it forms a rough rectangle. Next, slice the potato longwise into half-inch slices. Stack the slice on top of each other and then slice again lengthwise. Cut across the slices producing a medium dice. Potatoes will discolor very quickly once it’s exposed to the air, so if you’re not cooking them immediately, submerge the diced potatoes in cold water.
Mincing is an even finer cut than dicing. When you cut your vegetable this finely, they cook quickly. Mincing uses the same technique, just smaller dimensions. To mince a shallot, cut the shallot in half lengthwise. Use a sharp paring knife. Lay one half face down on the cutting board. Holding the knife parallel to the cutting board, make several vertical slices and across.
For a Jalapeño, slice each side. To remove any remaining seeds and veins, lay the knife parallel to the pepper, and gently slice along the inside of the pepper to remove the seeds and the ribs. Next, make very fine slices down the length of the pepper. Cut across the slices to mince.
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