Basic Cooking Skills

I was reading one of my favorite cooking blogs, The Kitchn, when I came across a post about basic cooking skills that all beginners should know. I wanted to share this with you all and spend the next couple of days going through each technique so that you can slowly begin to add to your kitchen repertoire.

image via eoiguada.info

Bourdain’s basic argument, which has also been made elsewhere, is that every person should have the basic knowledge and skills to feed themselves a decent meal. This is knowledge that has been gradually lost with the demise of home ec classes in school and the convenience of pre-made grocery store meals.

Of course, no one really wants a return to the fussy, boring home ec classes of yore. (Yes, I’m old enough that I remember these!) So Bourdain’s idea is to make cooking cool. Or more to the point, to make not cooking decidedly un-cool. Wouldn’t it be great, he says, if in the future “it’s the kid who can’t roast a chicken who should be considered the ‘spaz.’”

But back to those basic skills. Here’s what Bourdain thinks everyone should know:

• Chopping an onion
• Making an omelet
• Roasting a chicken
• The correct way to grill and rest a steak
• Cooking vegetables to desired doneness
• Making a vinaigrette
• Shop for fresh produce
• Buying a fish, cleaning it, and making it
• Roasting meat
• Roasting and mashing potatoes
• Braising meats and vegetables
• What to do with bones (a.k.a. How to make stock)

Technique Tuesdays - Knife skills: Slicing and Dicing

My knife technique is one skill that I constantly wish to improve upon. Given that using a knife is one of the most fundamental aspects of cooking, it is a good idea to have at the minimum a general idea of how to hold one. It's better to have a good idea of how to use one to cut vegetables. I decided to start with slicing and dicing, particularly on the elusive onion.

I've been using larger, chefs knives since I was a child, probably to the behest of my mother. And despite having at least 10 years of knife-using experience, I still felt as though I hadn't develop the most effective way of serving my cutting needs. I wanted some video tutorials, and so I searched in the iTunes store and found a bunch of podcasts and video tutorials, many of which I will be utilizing in this blog in the future (with the proper attributions of course). The videos I most enjoy are Basics of Culinary by the Art Institutes, under iTunes U. 

The videos I've provided below are from kitchendaily.com, featuring chefs from the Culinary Institute of America, one of the foremost culinary institutions in the world. I've also provided a YouTube video featuring Chef and Owner of Lento restaurant. Hopefully, after a weekend in the kitchen (or in front of the TV as I like to do) with a 10 lb bag of onions, you'll be slicing and dicing like a boss.

How to Dice an Onion.

http://www.kitchendaily.com/5minvideo/308338011

Note: this video leaves out a step that I always do, which is after slicing vertically, I make 2-3 horizontal cuts in the onion (like in this video, though this person makes about 10), then proceed to the slicing cut, which I believe produces a finer dice (a brunoise, if you would)

How to Slice an Onion

http://www.kitchendaily.com/2010/03/15/slicing-an-onion-kitchen-basics/

Research Other Knife Cuts and feel free to search for more videos on youtube, as there are tons of resources available.

A Picture Guide of My Attempts:

vertical cut

horizonal cut

final slice

diced

sliced