Technique: Improving Knife Skills
How to cross chop and crush garlic, slice and dice an onion and julienne and cube carrots.
Grab a knife. Slice and dice. Chop and crush. Focus on what really matters, and that’s your fingers and thumbs.
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Improving Knife Skills
Cross Chopping / Slicing / Dicing / Crushing / Julienne
Cross chop and crush garlic
Crushing garlic breaks down the cells, releasing enzymes, and makes the garlic milder.
Here’s how
Place garlic clove on board, lay knife flat over top of the garlic.
Make a fist and bang the top of your knife squashing the clove below.
Grip the clove (fingers and thumb well protected) and slice.
Lightly position your fingers on the back of the blade and cross chop by moving the handle up and down.
Once in small pieces, smoosh the garlic. Use the side of the blade and press down until you have a paste.
Slice and dice an onion
Rough chopping an onion bruises it. A better option is to dice it into small cubes with this method.
Here’s how
Peel the onion. Chop in half (so it’s stable) and place on board.
Hold the onion (use the claw grip keeping your pinky and thumb well back.)
Keeping the root intact, make small slices into the onion lengthways.
Place your hand on top of the onion.
Slice horizontally through the onion towards the root. Don’t go through the root. Slice slightly downwards, away from your hand. Do this twice once near the top, once near the bottom of the onion.
Grip the onion again (protecting your fingers and thumb) and slice away.
If you’ve done it right, small diced onion will magically appear.
Julienne and cube carrots
Sometimes you are going to want those perfect matchstick (julienned) or diced carrots. So, my culinary teacher would say “the attention in the details.”
Here’s how
Top and tail the carrot and cut in half.
Block the carrot. Do this by cutting each side so you have a rectangle block. (Use offcuts for stock.)
Hold the block (protect your fingers and thumb with your knuckle) and chop into three equal pieces.
Lay those pieces in a line and chop each of those pieces into three equal pieces.
You should now have 9 perfect matchstick carrot batons.
To dice: Line up the 9 batons and chop into 5mm squares.
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Knife Skills. Focus on what matters. That’s your fingers and thumbs