Basic Knife Skills

hi I'm chef Michael from the Kroger culinary for one one where it's all about the info today it's about basic knife skills let's start with cutting boards my favorite is bamboo to me it's probably the safest board because unlike the glass cutting boards your knife actually goes into the wood on glass it slides to the side which is very dangerous when you're chopping and cutting for safety issue is when you're cutting on your cutting board you'll notice that if it's on the counter it's going to have a tendency to move around to stop that from happening place a dampened paper towel on your counter first before you place your cutting board on so it won't move my favorite knife of choice is the 8 inch chef's knife to hold the knife take your index finger and your thumb and pinch both side to the top of the blade then bring your other three fingers back onto the handle of the blade this will give you a sturdy and firm hold over the blade notice that the blade is rounded for the safest cutting technique the blade actually never comes off the cutting board as you're cutting up and down while moving the blade up and down to me the most unsafe chop is I don't do that the other half of the safe cutting technique is going to be your hand that holds the food you're cutting you don't want to keep your hand in this position or this way you want to make sure you do what we call the claw grip where your fingers are at the very top holding the item you're cutting let's start with an onion we're going to cut it from the root end to the stem end we'll bring our fingers up to the claw grip put the knife on top and drive the knife down till it hits the cutting board and then finish your cut next we're going to lay the onion down on the flat side where it's going to be easy to handle fingers again in a claw grip remove the end where the stem was keeping the root and intact next remove the outer layer of the onion now if you want to make some real thin slices for say a salad we'll start it again with our clog wrap you don't want to hold it like this because see where my thumb is that's dangerous clog wrap I'll bring the knife the tip is staying down and we'll make some really thin slices of the onion make some great slices for salads if you want to dice the onion hold the back of the onion we'll make some vertical slices not all the way through because remember that root ends going to hold the onion together and we'll turn and again with our same cutting technique roll the knife make some nice dice notice I maintain my claw grip as I move back down the onion as I'm slicing now what about a green onion or a scallion we'll start or removing the hairy end then remove the one outer layer piece and we'll make some really thin slices or if you want to dice you can come in and make one slice down the middle or turn it 90 degrees and do another one and then do a really small dice green onions have a stronger flavor then your yellow onion or your Vidalia but not as strong as the shallot which is kind of a cross between an onion and a garlic but if you're going to use green onions say in an omelet you might want to saute them first to kind of really sweeten them up before you pop your eggs in there the shadow is going to be done exactly the same way we did our regular onion cut it end-to-end and have a flat side take out the outer peel watch your fingers do the same kind of dice now don't let the steak once's have all the fun slice your shallots really thin saute them in some olive oil on a really low heat where they're just simmering it might take about ten minutes between to make some fantastic onions to go on your steak I'll call them tobacco onions how about garlic this is a head and these are the cloves they refrigerate your garlic place them in a ramekin and leave them on your countertop at room temperature next to your cooking station start by removing the tip where it's connected to the head legs we'll place our knife flat and a pop we should easily peel off the outer shell notice it's shaped like a shallot so we're going to face it the same way we'll start with our clog wrap and come in not all the way through so it stays together we'll make some slices and we'll turn claw grip and we'll give it some slices to make a nice dice and to make a finer dice we're going to use a hands-free roll cut cut it through then we're gonna line the pieces up so we get more cuts for swipe these little ramekins are handy to have on your counter so when you're getting ready to cook have everything chopped ahead of time French call it meats and plot which means a place for everything and everything in its place you never do any cooking to all your items are diced cans are open and lined up in the order they go into your pan before you start which leads me to the most asked about item to cut the green bell pepper we'll start by removing the top and the bottom remove that sea clump cut it in half in half again then we're going to remove these white inner ribs that are extremely bitter you don't want those in there or the seeds the shiny side or outer side of your bell pepper needs to be facing down towards the cutting board if you cut it with it facing up your knife will just bounce all over the place it's very tough so with this we're going to go ahead and start with our claw grip we're going to go ahead and make some rolling thin chops to make a julienne slice then we'll turn and line them up and they come the other way claw grip to make a nice dice how about ginger best way to peel it a spoon will just take the spoon and scrape it right off remember that the center portion of the ginger root is very fibrous and tough so we're actually going to come in with our knife and cut around to use the outer portion of our ginger leaving that Center fibrous behind we'll make some nice thin julienne slices and we'll turn and make a nice fine dice now the recipe calls for grading the ginger you can use a microplane and our regular hand grater keeping the ginger whole after you peel it and just lightly great around keeping the middle fiber section intact don't use that part lemon and wedges for seafood be nice to your guests removed both ends first we'll lay it flat and then we'll slice our wedges and this way you have a nice little handle so it doesn't slip out of the fingers let's finish with a tomato start by removing the top or where the stem end is next we're going to cut around the seeds which are bitter and the juice which is tasteless cut around the tomato coming around and curving the knife as you come around and we'll discard the center again we'll maintain our claw grip will make a nice julienne slice turn and make a nice dice use these safe cutting techniques and remember practice makes perfect

Channel: Kroger Culinary 411

Views: 9,358,993

Rating: 4.7151594 out of 5

Keywords: basic knife skills, how to use a knife, cutting tips and tricks, chef knife skills, the best knife skills, easy knife skills, how to use a chef knife, chef knife, how to cut like a chef, how to cut, knife skills, how to chop, how to knife, how to use a knife sharpener, learn how to cut like a chef, how to cut onions without crying, how to not cut while cutting vegetables, how to cut like a professional chef, how to cut like a pro chef

Id: 1eL7llVPuJg

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2012