Following recipes on the Klynk App, one of the most important skills that every cook must master is how to use a knife. Having some basic knife skills can set you apart from the how-to-boil-water beginners.
When cutting vegetables, it's crucial to keep your fingers out of the way and ensure that the blade is slicing through the food evenly. The ideal method for doing this is to hold the food with what is known as the "claw grip," use your knuckles as a guide and rock the blade over the meal.
Although the cutting hand, which holds the knife, takes center stage, the other hand plays a crucial supporting role. To maximize safety and effectiveness, that helping hand grips, nudges, and stabilizes the food being chopped.
But first, getting familiar with vegetable-cutting terms is an important step in getting started on your cooking journey. We've collected the most important vegetable-cutting techniques that everyone needs to know.
Types of Vegetable Cuts
Julienne Cut
The Julienne Cut is a thin cut, with each slice having a width of 1-2 mm. The fine-slice method is applied to produce thin matchstick shapes after the veggies have been chopped into thin rectangular slices. This cut is frequently used for carrots or to make potato fries. It would be perfect for Asian cuisines that require cooking at high temperatures for a short time. Once you have mastered Julienning, you can elegantly and precisely prepare your ingredients. Given its widespread use and role as the foundational cut, the Julienne is one of the most crucial cutting techniques every cook should master.
Dice
Julienning your ingredients first, then dicing them once more to make small cubes, is the next step. The ideal cube dimensions are 2 mm by 2 mm. The smallest dicing cut, known as the Brunoise Dice, is frequently used for soups. The dice cut also produces uniform squares for even cooking and a polished aesthetic, however, it is often smaller than a regular cube. Making an Asian traditional salsa or soup starts with dicing the vegetables large enough for them to not mix completely in the soups.
Chop
To chop a garlic clove, lay the unpeeled clove down on a cutting board and set the chef's knife blade flat against the side of the clove, parallel to the cutting surface. Smack the knife blade to break the clove quickly. Repeat it for all the cloves. From the base to the tip, cut thickly. The bits of garlic should be piled up, held together, and then chopped.
To chop coriander leaves, hold a bunch in your hands, and take off the stems. Use a ‘claw grip’ to cut the leaves into as small pieces as you wish. To chop carrots, first, peel them properly. Each carrot should be cut into equal-sized pieces using a chef's knife before being cut lengthwise.
To chop onions, remove the tip and the outer cover first, and then cut them as you keep rotating the onion to the cutting side. If you only want the onion flavors to be present in the recipe, then chop them into fine pieces. If you want the bite of the onions to be in the dish, cut them into bigger pieces.
Slice
Slicing can be applied to a variety of plants, including fruits, meats, and veggies for making salads, or garnishing. The end result is round and thin in shape. To slice tomatoes, make sure that tomatoes are not too pulpy, or else they will not retain their perfect shapes for salads.
Mince
The food produced by mincing has an even finer consistency than that produced by dicing. In order to effectively use this technique, you must hold the handle of your knife in one hand while maintaining contact between the tip of the blade and the cutting surface with your other hand.
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