On September 8th, we hosted our first event of the semester! Starting this fall off with the basics, our Food Squad Director, Austin Lee, demonstrated various knife skills necessary for constructing any dish. Over 40 participants watched as he taught the proper way to hold a knife and the technique for dicing, julienning, and chiffonading. After the demonstration, our participants broke off into groups of six to practice their skills while working together to create a refreshing chopped salad with crispy oven-roasted chickpeas and a mouthwatering balsamic vinaigrette.
Knife Skills:
Dice: practicing on an onion, slice it in half lengthways. Then, make vertical cuts from root to tip (the more cuts there are, the smaller the dice), making sure to leave the root intact. Make a couple of cuts horizontally and then finish the dice by cutting the onion widthways to form cubes.
Julienne: practicing on a carrot, slice one side to create a flat surface. Then, slice into thin strips and lay those strips together to slice into thin batons.
Chiffonade: this is used for leafy vegetables and herbs. We practiced on mint, rolling or laying the leaves together, and then slicing them into very thin strips.
Each team then got to create their own chopped salad by cutting the vegetables, adding savory seasoned chickpeas, and tossing it in a tangy balsamic vinaigrette. This delicious salad can be recreated following the recipe below:
Stay tuned to our Instagram and Facebook to hear about rest of the events this semester!
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