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By JANET K. KEELER, Times Staff Writer
deconstructing: explanations from the inside outcutting termsRecipes call for different ways to cut ingredients. The way food is cut affects how it cooks and looks. For instance, small items cook faster than large ones, and items cut the same size cook at the same rate, for the most part. Here are the most common cutting styles: CHOP
SLICE
Cut into flat pieces, often in the same shape as the food, as in cucumber or melon slices. DICE
JULIENNE
Cut into thin matchstick pieces. MINCE
Cut into the smallest possible pieces. Garlic and onions are often minced. GRATE
this web site cooksThey road test infomercial kitchen gadgets. They poke fun at, but openly subscribe to, healthful eating tips. They always have the last word. This male-slanted approach to the world of food online is more about keeping readers well-fed and aware of what's worth the calories (and what's not), and less about proper cooking techniques and of-the-moment ingredients. constant comment"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper." -- author Adelle Davis (Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit) cooking classThe Food Network's Sara Moulton offers this tip for easily pitting a large number of olives for a recipe: Place the olives on a cutting board, and using the flat side of a large knife, squash each olive until it splits. Use the tip of the knife or your fingers to extract the pit. bacterial battleDo you use one cutting board for meat and another for everything else? You don't? Egads! That's what food safety experts recommend to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria. If that's too much trouble, you might find Saran's new disposable cutting sheets useful. The cut-resistant, absorbent sheets are placed on top of the cutting board and keep harmful bacteria from seeping into the board. The transportable sheets are good to take on picnics or camping. A pack of 20 10- by 12-inch sheets is $3.99. One fish, two fish, red fish . . .Orange you glad that Goldfish now come in violet and red? The snack food found in half of all houses with kids younger than 12 adds tricolor crackers to its ever-expanding product line. Remember when Goldfish first smiled? The new, vivid red and violet fish don't taste different from the original cheesy orange, but they might be more fun for the wee ones to eat. At least it will help teach them their colors. Look for Goldfish colors in stores this month for $1.79 a bag. dinner tonightFor a quick, delicious and light meal, chop cooked egg rolls, frozen or from a restaurant, and use them to top an Asian-inspired green salad. To greens of your choice (maybe chopped bok choy?), add sliced water chestnuts, julienned red peppers, grated carrots, bean sprouts and toasted sesame seeds. Use a store-bought vinaigrette that features ginger or sesame seeds as a primary flavor. grains of wisdomIf you're looking to put some spice in your rice, here are some easy ideas from the USA Rice Federation:
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From the Times Taste section From the features wire |
Cut into irregular pieces. Vegetables that have been chopped usually don't need more cutting at the table.
Cut into uniform pieces, usually a quarter- or half-inch square. A fine dice is an eighth- to a quarter-inch, a medium dice is a quarter-inch, and a large dice is a half-inch. A cut of larger than a half-inch is usually called cubed, as in cheese cubes.
Separate into tiny bits by running the food over the rasps of a grater. The results can be pulpy and juicy (ginger, onions) or more shredlike (cheese, carrots), depending on the food and the size of the grater holes. Shredding and grating, though done with the same equipment, are not the same. Shredded food is stringlike rather than pulverized.
