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I would like to create a new thread. Maybe something to help us keep our lives occupied in this time of quarantines and isolation. I never really know what skills people want to see, so if you don't know how to do something, then please request someone to make a video. I know a lot about mass veggie production and I have a lot of experience with beef and pork, but I suck at seafood for instance. I would love to see some debas in action. It seems we are all going to be cooking from home a lot so we might as well work on broadening our skill sets and eat good healthy homemade stuff.

Here's a video to get us started.

How to cut a kabocha squash. These things suck to peel, so the easiest way is to cut them into wedges and roast them. Then you can serve them as is with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Or you can scoop them off of the skins and use the cooked pulp for a sauce or soup.

 
This is an awesome idea, @stringer, thank you!
I'd love to see how you tackle some basics - I'm sure I'm not cutting things the most effective ways, and could learn something from you. I think something like making a fresh pico de gallo/salsa, or the veggies for shakshuka. Something fun! Thanks for the idea.
 
Would be fun to see how everyone does bell peppers. Been doing it long enough to know there's no one right way.
 
Bell peppers is a good one. I stopped teaching prep cooks the way to do it. Instead I cut them three different ways, show them a finished slice, tell them to not waste too much product, and for them to figure it out.

I also vote for one on a small dice carrot. I’ll explain what I’ve come up with later.

Also, if there’s a reason you prefer a certain knife for different products that would be cool to hear about.
 
I would like to create a new thread. Maybe something to help us keep our lives occupied in this time of quarantines and isolation. I never really know what skills people want to see, so if you don't know how to do something, then please request someone to make a video. I know a lot about mass veggie production and I have a lot of experience with beef and pork, but I suck at seafood for instance. I would love to see some debas in action. It seems we are all going to be cooking from home a lot so we might as well work on broadening our skill sets and eat good healthy homemade stuff.

Here's a video to get us started.

How to cut a kabocha squash. These things suck to peel, so the easiest way is to cut them into wedges and roast them. Then you can serve them as is with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Or you can scoop them off of the skins and use the cooked pulp for a sauce or soup.


BTW, what knife is that?
 
Japanese style chef knives can take lots abuse. I know some people worry about torquing and rolling edges and such, but even very hard thin edges can be used to rock chop, guillotine and glide, double rock chop, walk and rock, push chop, scrape the board to lift ingredients, etc without damaging the edge. Even at high speed with crappy boards. I move back and forth between these styles subconsciously reacting to the ingredient. I never think about it. Also, pay attention to my left hand. It's actually doing all the work. After awhile all 5 fingers kind of move independently to guide the food to the knife edge. Pinkie and thumb take care of the top and bottom respectively. The second finger and fourth finger are keeping the pile as uniform as possible. My middle finger guides the knife. Your exact finger placement might be different, but the key to speed is training your guide hand. Your knife hand is a big dumb animal.

If you don't use the seeds and veins of a jalapeno it adds great flavor without much heat.

How to chop jalapeno skins

 
Great idea for a thread!

I made pasta aglio e olio last night and wondered how you pros would approach getting a bunch of finely sliced garlic. I also wonder if there is a fast way to chop Italian parsley that doesn’t include leaving lots of stems in the mix (perhaps stems matter less than I think?).
 
Great idea for a thread!

I made pasta aglio e olio last night and wondered how you pros would approach getting a bunch of finely sliced garlic. I also wonder if there is a fast way to chop Italian parsley that doesn’t include leaving lots of stems in the mix (perhaps stems matter less than I think?).
Stems do not matter less that you think. There is a way to hack at it like a bush with a machete but you don't quite get all of it. Not a big deal if you are in a rush and using the rest for a stock. Otherwise I usually have staff pick parsley when they aren't too busy. I loose my s**t when I go to grab the chopped parsley and I grab a small piece of stem.
 
Great idea for a thread!

I made pasta aglio e olio last night and wondered how you pros would approach getting a bunch of finely sliced garlic. I also wonder if there is a fast way to chop Italian parsley that doesn’t include leaving lots of stems in the mix (perhaps stems matter less than I think?).

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Or a mandolin?
 
Japanese style chef knives can take lots abuse. I know some people worry about torquing and rolling edges and such, but even very hard thin edges can be used to rock chop, guillotine and glide, double rock chop, walk and rock, push chop, scrape the board to lift ingredients, etc without damaging the edge. Even at high speed with crappy boards. I move back and forth between these styles subconsciously reacting to the ingredient. I never think about it. Also, pay attention to my left hand. It's actually doing all the work. After awhile all 5 fingers kind of move independently to guide the food to the knife edge. Pinkie and thumb take care of the top and bottom respectively. The second finger and fourth finger are keeping the pile as uniform as possible. My middle finger guides the knife. Your exact finger placement might be different, but the key to speed is training your guide hand. Your knife hand is a big dumb animal.

If you don't use the seeds and veins of a jalapeno it adds great flavor without much heat.

How to chop jalapeno skins



The only part you missed is, when after chopping the jalapeno peppers, you use the index finger of your left hand to rub your eyes. Yup! .... Like my East Indian friend “Binder Dundat” always says ..... DONT!
 
This is how I slice garlic. I usually cheat and by the peeled cloves. Time is money.



All the worst damage to my knives recently has been from cutting through hard garlic skins. I finally started using a beater paring instead of my very acute edge 65 HRC knives for this.... guess it's worth it to change knives to avoid ravaging the edge. Whatever.

And actually, because our local grocery store was out of whole garlic, I bought some peeled for the first time in years today. Once you go peeled you never go back? Is that the expression? Guess we'll find out.
 


The most important video I can make. You can't cut anything if you can't take the knife off the mag strip, right? ;)

There is *some* useful info here, at least for beginners.

1) There's the twisting motion to take the knife on/off the strip. This is especially important if you have a strong magnet in your strip and a san mai knife, because if you just lift the handle away from the strip you can cause tip bends over time. This used to happen to me with some frequency before I changed technique, and also covered my wooden knife strip in leather to decrease its strength.

2) There's the wiping of the knife from the middle, to avoid puncturing your towels with the heel of the knife. This was recently explained as well in a wonderful thread by @Michi.

3) There's the paper towel wipe. A good move for a home cook, I think, since you don't wipe often enough for the roll to get soggy and it really dries off the knife well.

(Guest starring @CiderBear's Heiji nakiri.)
 
The only part you missed is, when after chopping the jalapeno peppers, you use the index finger of your left hand to rub your eyes. Yup! .... Like my East Indian friend “Binder Dundat” always says ..... DONT!

Touching genitalia is also a very bad idea [emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24]
 


The most important video I can make. You can't cut anything if you can't take the knife off the mag strip, right? ;)

There is *some* useful info here, at least for beginners.

1) There's the twisting motion to take the knife on/off the strip. This is especially important if you have a strong magnet in your strip and a san mai knife, because if you just lift the handle away from the strip you can cause tip bends over time. This used to happen to me with some frequency before I changed technique, and also covered my wooden knife strip in leather to decrease its strength.

2) There's the wiping of the knife from the middle, to avoid puncturing your towels with the heel of the knife. This was recently explained as well in a wonderful thread by @Michi.

3) There's the paper towel wipe. A good move for a home cook, I think, since you don't wipe often enough for the roll to get soggy and it really dries off the knife well.

(Guest starring @CiderBear's Heiji nakiri.)

its crazy how many people I see wiping their knives with the edge facing inward and cut themselves...
 
its crazy how many people I see wiping their knives with the edge facing inward and cut themselves...
Works fine (and for many years) with the usual blunt knives that you find in most households. Once people have cut themselves into their palm that way, they usually don't do it a second time :)

After I recently sharpened some knives for a friend, she cut herself within the first five minutes of using one of them. (Fortunately, it was only a minor cut.) But now she is showing more respect for her knives :)
 
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