Clear-cut advice on knife skills
A must-have new book -- DVD included -- helps guarantee the slice is right.
Star-Telegram staff writer
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Of all the dozens of new books on food that have landed on my desk this year, if I were to pick one that guarantees to improve any cook's performance in the kitchen, it be would be Norman Weinstein's Mastering Knife Skills: The Essential Guide to the Most Important Tools in Your Kitchen (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $35).
Weinstein has taught knife skills at New York City's Institute of Culinary Education for more than 20 years, and he has distilled his lessons into this book that tells you how to assemble a "knife wardrobe" (including what not to waste money on); how to store, maintain and sharpen your knives; even how to choose and maintain a cutting board.
After those basics come instructions in basic techniques -- the various grips, holds and cutting stances -- and then detailed instructions on everything from dicing onions to julienning vegetables to mincing fresh ginger to disjointing a chicken, all clearly illustrated with step-by-step photos.
The bonus: a DVD on which Weinstein demonstrates the most important knife techniques.
If you customarily end up with mangled tomatoes in your kitchen, for example, here's the antidote: the book's instructions on coring and dicing tomatoes.
Coring tomatoes Knife: 3 1/2-inch paring knife
Coring grip: Hold the tip of the paring knife with the thumb and index fingers -- thumb across the first joint of the index finger to form a 90-degree angle, index finger at the bottom of the thumbnail -- with the blade facing the fingertips. Rest the spine [of the knife] against the base of the remaining fingers with the bolster at or near the base of the pinky finger. Gently curl the remaining fingers to support the spine and handle. (You cannot cut yourself unless you press extraordinarily hard, and there is no reason to do that.)
1 Hold the tomato stem-side-up in the palm of the holding hand and angle it toward the knife hand. With an inch of knife showing above your thumb, insert the tip of the knife at a 45-degree angle, edge facing you, into the side of the core until your thumb makes contact with the tomato. Your thumb must stay in contact with the top of the core until it is removed.
2 Rotate the knife hand toward you until the knuckles are facing up. Hold the tomato firmly and rotate the knife hand back to the starting position (knuckles facing away) while simultaneously turning the tomato toward you. Three or four turns should remove the core.
Dicing tomatoes Knife: Chef's knife
1 Core the tomato and cut a thin slice from top and bottom.
2 Stand the tomato upright. Cut off the four "sides," following the curves. Remove any seeds with the fingers.
3 Cut the sides into strips the thickness of the desired dice.
4 Turn the strips horizontally and cut crosswise for the dice.
Amy Culbertson is the
