The following are a few tips YaDa Chef uses for six routinely used vegetables. These six vegetables provide the flavor base for virtually everything one cooks, from soups and stews to sauces and salad dressings.
The following tips will assist you in avoiding common mistake in buying, storing, and prepping them to ensure you are making the most of these vegetables.
Onions:
Store onions at a cool room temperature and away from the light. Do not store them in the refrigerator as their odors can permeate other foods.
The way an onion is sliced make no difference to its flavor and often does often affect the appearance, especially in soups, stews and braises. When cooked in liquid, onions sliced against the grain turn lifeless and wormy. Sliced with the grain, pole to pole, it retains more shape and become a more significant component of your dish.
A sharp knife and a good technique makes chopping quick and easy, and often tear free.
Slicing and Dicing
- Using a chef's knife, halve the onion pole to pole. cut off the tops of each half leaving the root end intact, and peel the onion.
- Making horizontal cuts, beginning with the heel of the blade, carefully pull the knife toward you without cutting through the root end.
- Using the knife tip, make several vertical cuts dragging the knife near you. Making sure to keep the tip against the board.
- Slice across the lengthwise cuts, using your knuckles as a guide for the knife while holding the onion with your fingertips.
Garlic:
Buy loose garlic. Do not buy the heads packaged that do not allow you to inspect the garlic. Do not buy heads that are spongy or have skins where cloves used to reside. Avoid garlic which smells fermented or unusually fragrant or has spots of mold. These are all signs of spoilage.
To store properly, keep unpeeled garlic heads and cloves in a dry pantry space, away from direct sunlight. Do not store in the refrigerator as this will often cause it to soften and deteriorate more quickly than if you do not. (However, depending the season, and your household temperature, you may opt to store in the refrigerator.) NEVER store raw garlic in oil, this practice can result in botulism.
The only proper way to skin a clove of garlic is to crush the clove with the side of a chef's knife.
The skin will loosen for easy removal.
To prep your garlic, remove any green sprout from the center of the clove before cooking. The green sprout will add bitterness to food.
Use a garlic press to mince cloves. This is an easy and quick way to break down the cloves in a fine and even manner vs. using a knife. This also enables better flavor distribution throughout your dish.
Leeks:
Purchase leeks which have unblemished leaves with long white stems. Generally, the size of the leek have no impact on the flavor. But stay away from pretrimmed leeks.
Leeks can be used in place of onions when a milder, sweeter flavor. They are great in soups and fantastic braised and served on hot or cold in a vinaigrette.
Store them in a partially opened bag or in your refrigerator's
crisper drawer.
Often Leeks are gritty, a thorough cleaning is required. Trim off the dark green leaves, which can be saved to flavor stock, then trim the root end keeping the base intact. While keeping the base intact, halve lengthwise, rinse under cool running water, pulling apart the layers to expose any dirt.
Cut the leek in half through the base, then lay each cleaned half cut side down on a board and slice crosswise into thin strips.
Carrots:
Look for sturdy, hard carrots - this is a sign of freshness. Do not buy extra large ones. They are often woody and bitter.
To store and prevent your carrots from shriveling, store them in a crisper, wrapped in their original packaging or in a partially open bag.
- To dice, remove a thin slice from one side of the carrot to form a flat edge.
- Place the carrot on that edge and cut it lengthwise into strips for even thickness.
- Turn the strips 90 degrees and cut horizontally to complete the dice.
Celery:
When buying celery, look for tightly packed, crisp stalks. When you find brown spots or blemishes or stalks that have begun to shrivel from age, these are signs that the celery is not in peak freshness.
Similar to carrots, celery should be stored in your crisper in its original plastic wrapping or in a partially open bag.
In a pinch, you can revive limp celery by trimming off an inch from each end and submerging in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes.
- When dicing, to create an even dice, start by slicing a rib of celery in half crosswise.
- Next, cut each half into strips of equal width lengthwise.
- Cut across the strips to form an even dice.
Shallots:
Shallots have a mild and delicate flavor, more so than onions. Choose shallots when you want a silky texture and onion flavor incorporated into the mix. A chopped shallot will melt away during cooking, creating a subtle complex flavor.- When mincing your shallots, place the peeled shallot flat side down and create closely spaced cuts in a vertical fashion throughout it, leaving the root end intact.
- Make a couple cuts in the opposite direction through the shallot.
- Thinly slice it crosswise. This process will create a fine mince.
These basic tips should assist you when working with basic vegetables and your cooking practices. Remember, YaDa Chef does provide cooking classes for individuals, parties, and corporate events and seminars.
YaDa Chef, a private catering company and personal chef service based in Fort (Ft) Lauderdale serving south Florida from the Palm Beaches to the Keys; Specializing in custom menus using fresh organic ingredients.
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