The French term chiffonade means "made of rags." In cooking, chiffonade is a technique for slicing herbs and leafy vegetables into long, thin strips. This method is useful for cooking tougher greens like kale and chard, which can be hard to chew when left in bigger pieces. It's also a nice way to slice up herbs like mint or basil to scatter over a dish or add to a salad.
To chiffonade something, stack and roll a small pile of leaves and then slice (or snip) them into thin ribbons.
What does it mean to vandyke a lemon?
What does it mean to vandyke a lemon?
Vandyke is the verb used to describe the process of cutting a zig-zag pattern around the circumference of a lemon to create decorative lemon half garnishes to dress up fish platters and other plates.
The term is inspired by 17th-century painter Vandyke's portraits of men with pointy v-shaped beards.
It's easier than it looks to vandyke a lemon and shows your guests that you care.
Here's how: Trim the ends of the fruit so that your halves will sit evenly on the plate. Now use a small, sharp knife to carve zig-zag cuts through the skin and as far into the center of the lemon as possible. Once you've made it all the way around, carefully separate the halves, trimming any stubborn bits.
You can also vandyke an orange, lime, tomato, or even a melon.
Most of the heat in a chile pepper -- whether jalapeño, serrano, habanero, or another -- comes from the white ribs and seeds. Removing both reduces the chile's heat and allows more of the pepper's flavor to come through.
First, cut the pepper in half lengthwise. If you want the halves to stay intact for larger slices or a large dice, just trim out the seeds and ribs, cut out the stem, and slice the pepper as thick or thin as you like.
Otherwise, it's easier to get the seeds and ribs out if you cut each half in half again.
To get the seeds and ribs out, hold each quarter by the end. With the knife parallel to the cutting board, slice across the ribs and seeds. When you get to the top of the pepper, turn the knife downward toward the cutting board and chop off the stem with the same motion. (Here, we used a Granton Santoku knife; you may prefer a smaller paring knife.)
Reference: Help! I ate a hot pepper! (Cookthink)
Reference: How to seed a chile pepper (Cookthink)
Reference:: Why are some jalapenos hotter than others? (Cookthink)
Cutting a baguette, a carrot, a zucchini, a shallot, a scallion, a green bean or a banana on the bias means to slice it not straight across, but at a roughly 45-degree angle.
This angled cut creates elongated, oval-shaped pieces and makes for a more elegant presentation. In the case of baguette slices, it means you can get more surface area on even, thin slices of bread, in order to make bruscetta, pile on cheese, or to float in a soup.
Recipe: Lentil Bruschetta With Basil And Pecorino (Cookthink)
Recipe: Carrot-Mint Salad (Cookthink)
What does it mean to devein a shrimp?
What does it mean to devein a shrimp?
"Deveining" has nothing to do with veins. To devein a shrimp is to remove the black threadlike intestinal tract that runs along its back.
Deveining is a good idea when working with larger shrimp, because the digestive tract can contain grit. But whether or not to devein smaller shrimp is a matter of preference. Some people think the flavor of a dish is enhanced by leaving it in (or that it's just too much trouble to remove the harmless tract). The perfectionists among us remove it for aesthetic purposes.
We're not perfectionists here, so we rarely devein shrimp. If you're set on doing it, there are a few shrimp deveining devices on the market -- such as OXO's shrimp cleaner -- but you can just as easily make do with a knife. Peel the shrimp first, then run the tip of a sharp knife along the shrimp's back to lift out the delicate black vein, removing any pieces that break off with your fingers.
Recipe: Broiled Thai Shrimp (Cookthink)
Recipe: Spicy Linguini With Shrimp And Mint (Cookthink)
How to prep an acorn squash for roasting
How to prep an acorn squash for roasting
Acorn squash have thick, ribbed skins that make them seem tough to peel. Here's how to cut one into half-rings for roasting in the oven.
Start by slicing the squash in half lengthwise.
Remove the seeds from each half with a spoon, taking care to scrape away all the stringy fibers.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the squash's skin along the ribs. Don't worry about being too neat here. The skin is edible and leaving some on looks nice.
Put the squash flat on your cutting board and trim off each end.
Next cut it into 1-inch slices.
Toss the squash with any spices you like -- cinnamon, cardamom, cumin -- a little salt, sugar and a oil or melted butter.
Spread the slices evenly on a sheet pan.
Roast until they're tender and brown in spots.
Kohlrabi is an intimidating-looking vegetable on the outside; its exterior skin is knobby, ruddy and rough. But remove that and you'll find the flesh inside tender, nutty and versatile. Here's how:First, use a small, sharp knife to cut away the stems right where they meet the round root. Use the same knife or a vegetable peeler to remove the rest of the exterior skin.Now all you need to do is remove the core. Like you would when coring cabbage or fennel, cut the kohlrabi lengthwise into quarters.Turn each quarter on its end, then slice away and discard the core (or save it to make vegetable broth).Now the kohlrabi is your oyster. Cut it into paper-thin slices to have raw in a salad, cube it and simmer it in braises and stews, or julienne it for stir-frys.
Strip cabbage of its outer leaves; rinse the head well and pat dry.
Now slice the cabbage in half through its tough, fibrous core with a long, sturdy knife.
Cut each half in half again through the core. This will expose the core to make it easy to remove.
Holding each cabbage quarter upright, remove the tough core.
Now you can slice the cabbage into long, thin strips for slaws, salads, soups or stews or thicker strips for braises and sautés.
Cutting up a whole chicken for the first time may seem baffling, but there's no need to worry. If you watch this video by Handmade TV, you'll be all set. Just make sure to sharpen your knife!
How to make country potato salad
How to make country potato salad
Summertime barbecues wouldn't be the same without potato salad. To learn how to make this version of an all-American favorite, watch Handmade TV's instructional video.
How to make cold cucumber soup
How to make cold cucumber soup
Cold cucumber soup makes the perfect starter for a summertime dinner party. This instructional video by Handmade TV shows how easy it is to make.
Britain is famous for its blue cheeses, most notably Stilton, which is now required to be made with pasteurized milk. Stichelton is a "new" classic blue cheese made from unpasteurized milk using traditional methods. Stichelton was the 11th century name of Stilton village.
Produced by cheesemakers Joe Schneider and Randolph Hodgson of Neal’s Yard Dairy, Stichelton is an unpressed, delicately curded, full-flavored cheese with a buttery texture. The cheese is made in Nottinghamshire using very small doses of rennet and starter bacteria. The cheesemakers hand-ladle curds into a trough to mature overnight. It is salted in the morning and left for five days before being smoothed with a kitchen knife.
