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>> We're going to show you how to properly cut an onion today, shallots and garlic.
[background noise] For the onion, first thing you want to be aware of is that you need to
be able to hold it together.
So you take that one end and this root end you want to just take a little bit of it off.
If you take the whole part off, it will fall apart as you cut it.
[noise] Slice in half.
[noise] Clean your cutting board off before you begin.
You don't want to get bits and pieces inside of where you're cutting.
All the brown skin must come off of the onion.
It does not dissolve as it cooks.
So the first step is using proper, holding your knife properly, thumb on one side, index
finger, fingers wrapped around the handle.
Using your guiding fingers, you're going to, to make small dice you're going to do quarter
inch, almost through but not all the way to the end, that core end of the onion.
[noise] From here you're going to use, carefully holding the knife horizontal, cut that way.
And then using your guiding knuckle, again make quarter inch slices.
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Create evenly diced, small diced onion.
To make smaller dice, you just simply make the lines closer together as you go along
and you can also do more than one horizontal cut.
In order to make sliced onion, take the core area off.
[ Noise ]
And again, using your guiding knuckles, resting the tip of the knife on the cutting board,
[noise] make thin, julienned slices, perfect for French onion soup and salad, sautéed
onions.
[ Noise ]
You have evenly sliced onion.
Next we're going to go show you how to chop garlic.
Whole garlic comes in bulbs.
When you take one of the cloves off of it, the best way to loosen the skin is to take
your knife and the heel of your hand, the flat of your knife, smack it,
[ Noise ]
and the skin comes right off.
Next you take your garlic cloves and using your guiding finger,
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from here, taking the flat of your hand on the back of your knife, simply go back and
forth over it to finely mince.
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Clean the edge of your knife off.
Be careful when you run it along the edge.
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And you have minced garlic.
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Next I would like to show you how to mince or finely dice shallots.
Shallots are a member of the onion family.
They are subtly milder in flavor and they have a little hint of garlic almost to them.
You approach them just like you do an onion.
Take the end off and the little root end trim, slice it down the center.
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Peel the outside off, the skin off.
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And then either using your chef knife or a paring knife, very close together, almost
through to that root end, make fine slices, one horizontal to the cutting board and then
begin using your guiding finger.
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You're evenly minced, finely diced shallot.
By doing it this way you're not crushing it so you're not going to smash it and give off
flavors and also much more efficiently done once you learn how to properly use your knife
and your guiding hand.
So in summary, we showed you how to peel an onion, then how to slice and dice it.
We showed you whole garlic and how to mince the cloves.
And then went on to shallots and how you minced those.