Read The Can't Cook Book: Recipes for the Absolutely Terrified! Online
Authors: Jessica Seinfeld
Tags: #Non-Fiction
The Can't Cook Book: Recipes for the Absolutely Terrified! (6 page)
How-to
If you learn one thing, learn how to use fresh garlic. Nothing beats it. Depending on the recipe, you’ll use it smashed or chopped.
To remove a clove of garlic from a garlic bulb, slide your knife between the cloves, then
twist your knife to pop it out
.
twist your knife to pop it out
Place the garlic clove on your cutting board. Place the side of your chef’s knife on top of it and smash it with your open palm. (
Use one quick pounding motion
.) The harder you smash your garlic cloves, the easier they will be to peel and chop.
use one quick pounding motion
How to: smash garlic
The smashing action works to loosen the garlic clove’s skin. Use your fingers to
peel away the papery outer layer
. Cut off and discard brown ends. It’s okay if the smashed garlic pieces are different sizes.
peel away the papery outer layer
To chop the cloves, hold the handle of the chef’s knife with one hand and place your other hand (fingers extended) on top of the opposite end of the knife. With the knife running through the garlic,
use a seesaw action
to rock the blade back and forth until the garlic is chopped into small pieces.
use a seesaw action
How to: chop garlic
How-to
For all you Can’t Cooks out there, let’s face the onion together. It’s far less intimidating than you might think and essential to so many recipes.
Place the onion on your cutting board.
Trim off the stem end
of the onion—not the hairy root end. Rest the onion on the flat end you’ve just created and
cut the onion in half
from root end to stem end.
Peel away
the papery outer layer. You’re now ready to slice or chop your onion.
trim off the stem end
cut the onion in half
peel away
Depending on the recipe, you will either slice OR chop your onions.
Prep your onion (
trim
,
cut in half
, and
peel
). Then lay one half of the onion flat on your cutting board. Starting at the trimmed end, and with the backs of your fingers up against the blade and your fingertips tucked back and away, thinly
slice into half-moons
, stopping short of the root. Repeat with the other half.
slice into half-moons
How to: slice onion
Prep your onion (
trim
,
cut in half
, and
peel
). Then lay one half of the onion flat on your cutting board. Starting on one side,
slice into it lengthwise
toward the center of the onion (think, rays of the sun) at
1
/
4
- to
1
/
2
-inch intervals to just near, but not through, the root end (you need the root end intact to hold everything together). Slice all the way around the onion. Then change your blade direction and
make even, perpendicular cuts
until you reach the root end. The chopped pieces will fall away as you cut. Chop it into smaller pieces after that, if you like. Repeat with the other half.
slice into it lengthwise
make even, perpendicular cuts
How to: chop onion
