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TH E BULLETIN• TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014
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Next week: Redo your kitchen backsplash
Photos by Andy Tullis/The Bulletin
Jaime Aguirre, co-owner of Ginger's Kitchenware, cuts butternut squash during a class at his store in the Old Mill District. Aguirre recommends softening the squash in s hot oven for five to10 minutes snd cutting it to create flat sides for stability.
Knife skills
push harder to cut and chop. If While it sounds basic, Aguyou're pushing hard on a knife, irre says many home cooks it's easy to slip, and that's do not hold their knives corContinued from D1 "A dull knife is infinitely dangerous." rectly. The best technique inmore dangerous than a sharp Fortunately, in this k n ife- volves actually pinching the knife," stressed Aguirre sever- skills class, Aguirre let all the blade with your forefinger and al times during the course. "If students use his already sharp- thumb, while the rest of the your knife is dull, you have to ened andhonedknives. hand rests on the handle. "You get better control with
Knife skills101 When:April 26, 2 to 4 p.m. Where:Ginger's Kitchenware in the OldMill District Cost:$25 Details:Learn knife techniques, including care and handling. Bring onestraight kitchen knife to haveit sharpened for free. Contact:541-617-0312
this method," said Aguirre, as he began to chop celery. He demonstrated the claw technique with his other hand, holding the celery down. "The claw is slightly curling the fin"Actually, anything round gertips on your off-hand; if you see your fingernails, you risk you want to make it flat first," cutting your fingertips. Keep added Aguirre. them curled, and use your knuddes as a guide for the Beyondvegetables knife blade." Aguirre took out a w hole Anothercommon chopping chicken and began to trim the mistake of home cooks is the fat from the chicken, using his improper arm motion. all-purpose chef's knife. "The knife is not a machete," "You can do 90 percent of said Aguirre. "You want the ef- all your chopping, slicing and ficiency of what the blade can cutting with the chef's knife," do for you, and you get that by said Aguirre, who says a chef's keeping the tip of the knife on knife's blade is usually 8 or 9 the board, and using that as inches long. a fulcrum, while using an up Aguirre gave a quick lesson and down motion." on chicken anatomy, saying If you watch the Food Net- if you are carving a chicken work, the television chefs are correctly, you will never cut usually chopping at such a through bones. lightning pace you never realAguirre made a few more ly catch this technique. Agu- fast cuts and pulled out the irre showed the daw and arm wings and took the tips of the motion in a precise and slow wings to save andmakebroth. "Save those wing tips in a demonstration. "Maintain the claw," cau- freezer bag, and when you tioned Aguirre, as students have enough you can make a started chopping. "This is not delicious broth," said Aguirre, a race. It's like yoga. Pay atten- as he maneuvered the chicken tion to your forward motion. around his cutting board and The right hand moves with the made a few more well-placed left hand in harmony." cuts to make a perfect skinless Like a coach, Aguirre en- chicken breast. "Now that's the couraged the adult students to
chicken breast, and that's $4.99
be mindful of their chopping
a pound at the store, and if I cut it into chicken tenderloin pieces, s ounds, it goes up to about $9 apound." Aguirre also cautioned his By knowing your k nife students to "never, never cut skills, Aguirre says, home method. As obvious as it
towards the body."
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PJ
cooks can save a lot of money.
After the celery was all But Aguirre wasn't finished. chopped, Aguirre took out the He taught his students how to carrots and demonstrated a ju- make a vegetable centerpiece, lienne cut in a variety of sizes. which is a mock palm tree, usJulienne cuts are also known ing a carrot and a green bell as matchsticks. Aguirre put pepper. a potato on his cutting board, Aguirre is clearly the rock ready to make larger juliennes. star of knives in this class, "Now you know why they and students applauded him charge so much for hand-cut as the hour-and-a-half dass (french) fries. There are four concluded. "I have all these knives in my cuts on this potato," said Aguirre as he expertly removed knife block, and I didn't know most of the potato skins, and how to use them, until now," started the labor-intensive ju- said Vickie Minor, who attendliennes. "I can sell you gadgets ed the class."I thought it was all night long to do this, but this interesting to find out that there is something you should know areknivesforspecificpurposes, how to do with a basic knife." like the slicing knives for roast After he finished, he stacked
beef. You want to slice the meat
up the sliced potato and cut correctly, so you're not smashdown vertically to start dicing. ingthe meat down, because that The once long matchstick cuts
wrin@ all the juices out of the
became perfect small cubes. "Dicing will make a good breakfast hash," said Aguirre. "Notice the uniformity of the cuts."
meat and dries out each slice." Brenda Johnson says vegetable prepping is very important to her, and she wanted to know
more about chopping and slicing with accuracy and speed. ''Wow this dass has been ant because this will ensure that all the potatoes, or what- yeat," said Johnson. "I've been ever you've chopped, will be cutting onions all wrong, I refinished cooking at the same ally liked the trick he taught time. us tonight, that makes it easier The price of this class at and safer." Ginger's is $25. Also includAt the end of class, as prome d in that price is a k n i f e ised, Aguirre brought out his sharpening. many blade-sharpening tools One tip that I found extreme- and started working on dull ly helpful involved cutting but- knives, bringing them back to ternut squash and pumpkins, life. which always seem to be hard Steve Provence brought his as rocks. knife to class for sharpening "The trick to this monster and honing. Aguirre confirmed is to heat your oven to 425 de- that the knife was very dull, grees, and then put your but- barelyusable. "I know, I haven't used that ternut squash in the oven for about five to 10 minutes," said knife in probably 10 years," Aguirre, as he placed the al- saidProvence. Aguirre teaches students in his class to create a mockpalmtree ready hot squash on the cutAguirre ran t h e b l ade from a bell pepper snd acarrot. ting board. "This softens up through an electric sharpening Uniformity of cuts is import-
Aguirre shows atechnique for cutting an onion.
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the outside surface enough to
tool, careful not to take off too
make it a lot easier to cut." Because butternut squash is an odd shape, Aguirre suggests cutting it directly in half to make it a flatter piece on your cutting board, which makes it more stable for chopping.
much metal. After a few passes, Aguhm, and to punctuate the Aguirre took the honing stick point, he swiftly and deanly cut to it. through a magazine page. 'Thisisprobablya$100knife, Aguirreexplainedtothedass and Ican sellyou another one, that this is a good way to test the but as you can see, with a little sharpness of one's knife."If your attention, this knifeis asgood as knife looks like it's tearing the new once it's sharpened," said page when you do this and it's
notadeancut, it'stimetosharpen that knife," said Aguute.
"Home cooks probably need to sharpen their own knives, or have their knives sharpened by aprofessional twice ayear." — Reporter: pnakamura@ bendbulletin.com