What does it mean to mince something?
What does it mean to mince something?
On the scale of cutting things into little pieces, a mince is smaller than a dice, shred or chop, but not quite puréed, pulverized or squashed to a pulp. Things that are typically minced include shallots, garlic, ginger, onion, lemongrass, peppers, herbs, meats, words.
Why mince? Mince when you want to make sure that a powerful flavor is spread evenly throughout a dish. Also, mince if you want to make sure that you won’t bite into a too-big chunk of something potent, like garlic, or something difficult to chew, like ginger or lemongrass.
How to mince? Some cooks are born to mince with a chef’s knife, swiftly and precisely yielding the smallest bits of garlic, onion and herbs. For the clumsy and the lazy, a garlic press will mince several cloves at a time, a grater will work for ginger, and a vegetable chopper or baby Cuisinart will mince vegetables and herbs. A butcher is your best bet for mincing meat.
Caution: Mincemeat does not equal “minced meat.” Aside from contributing a little suet to the cause, the butcher can’t help you make a mincemeat (or mince) pie, which contains minced fruits, nuts and spices. The butcher may, however, send you off with “minced meat,” such as ground beef or pork, for your kibbi or larb.
The flavor of a shallot falls somewhere between red onion and garlic, often without the pungency of either. The shallot's subtle flavor works in soups, stews, sauces, and pretty much anywhere else you'd use an onion or garlic.
To dice a shallot, first cut it in half through the root.
Next, cut the papery end (not the root end) off and discard it. This will make the skin easier to peel away.
Make a series of vertical cuts through the shallot, without cutting all the way through to the end.
Then just rotate the shallot 90 degrees, and slice across the vertical cuts to make a dice.
When you want the flavor of ginger to permeate a a sauté , stir-fry, sauce or braise, mince it. For the most ginger flavor, mince it finely and add it toward the end of cooking. Cooking ginger longer mellows its flavor.
We usually start with what we call a "thumb" -- a piece of ginger roughly the size and shape of your thumb. To make the thumb easier to peel, start by cutting off any small protruding parts. You can peel and mince these separately.
We like to peel ginger with a spoon. Because a spoon is dull, it easily takes off the soft skin and leaves most of the aromatic flesh behind.
Slice the peeled thumb lengthwise into planks, thick or thin depending on how fine you want your mince to be. After you slice away one or two planks, roll the thumb over on the flat side for more stability.
Stack the planks and slice them lengthwise into matchsticks.
Now just gather the matchsticks together, rotate them 90 degrees, and slice them crosswise to complete the mince. For a finer mince, just run your knife across the pile a few times, chopping as you go.
When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press.
Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place.
To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases.
You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic.
To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like.
If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.
Pistou is the French answer to pesto.
A Provençal condiment made from basil, garlic and olive oil, it's primarily used to flavor a vegetable, bean and vermicelli soup known as soupe au pistou.
Traditionally, pistou does not include parmesan, but in a borderless Europe, the neighboring cheese sometimes makes it into the mix.
Gremolata (or gremolada) is a simple Italian garnish made of minced parsley, lemon zest and garlic.
Typically, gremolata is served alongside (or on top of) osso buco, but it can also be eaten with fish, chicken, steak or stirred into a pot of fresh fettuccine or soup. Parsley can be replaced with mint or cilantro and orange zest may be substituted for lemon.
A croquette is a culinary invention with a cute French name that shows up in cuisines around the world.
Basically, you can make just about anything into a croquette, which essentially consists of a sweet or savory mixture of ingredients bound in a thick sauce, shaped into bite-sized, usually cylindrical pieces, coated with egg and breadcrumbs, fried in oil until crisp and golden, and served hot.
The classic French savory mixture includes minced cooked poultry, game, veal or other meats, mushrooms and Madeira combined with reduced velouté or demi-glace sauce, egg yolks and butter. Other popular ingredients include potatoes, cheese or salt cod. Rice- or custard-based sweet croquettes may be made with things like apricots or chestnuts. Traditionally, croquettes are served with a sauce.
