I recently enrolled in a local cooking class which was a bold move for me. Cooking was never one of my favorite pastimes since food is not my friend. But a lot of my friends are serious foodies and excellent cooks. While they simply whip something wonderful up, I angst every time I entertain.
The class was entitled Everyday Cooking Without a Recipe. The Chef, Jeff Olson. It was exactly what I was looking for, a chance to escape the confines of a recipe a metaphor for the boring confines of everyday life. This appealed to me since I like to cook but I don't always want to cook with a recipe. I want to explore what I hope is my more creative side. When you work with computers you are always trying to logically work things out. For once I don't want to trouble shoot I just want to create.
One of the things he discussed in the beginning of the class was how to use a chef's knife. I asked him to go over that because I wanted to learn how to cut up things like onion and garlic without taking my knife off the cutting board. If you have watched the cooking shows you know what I mean. They just chop chop chop with the front of the knife on the cutting board, just lifting the handle up and down. There is a certain fluidity when a cook knows how to properly use their knife. I can now say I have a better understanding of the chef's knife.
He shared a couple of tips about a cutting knife. He preferred a high carbon stainless steel knife with a full tang. By tang I do not mean the drink the astronauts bring to the moon or your Mom use to make for you for breakfast. Full tang means one continuous piece of steel or stainless steel. Also a riveted handle is good. But most important, the knife has to feel good in your hand. The knife I used in the class was lovely. When I came home I threw out my chef's knife and I am now searching for a new and improved one.
Even though I learned good knife skills, cutting is still not my favorite part of cooking especially if we are talking onions. My love for kitchen gadgets led me to the Kuhn Rikon. You can click on the picture in the upper left hand corner on the top to get more information on the device. It is a Swiss pull cutting device meaning no electric just your arm to pull the cord attached to blades. I have included some pictures for you to see what it can do. But I must warn you. The blades are incredibly sharp as I found out when I was cleaning them and sliced my finger.
These are the veggies I wanted to cut
In this picture I have quartered the onion so it would fit.
This is what the veggies look like after one pull.
This picture shows me starting to pull the cord. You pull it like you would a lawn mower pull. It adds a little exercise to my kitchen routine.
I highly recommend it. It saves me so much time in the kitchen. For more information click on this link Kuhn Rikon Swiss Pull Chop
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