Kitchen hacks: 10 basic knife skills to help you chop like a pro

New to the kitchen? Fret not. We have some incredible hacks to help you begin your culinary (or well, chopping) journey like a pro.
One of the most essential kitchen tools is the knife, which must be handled extremely carefully to avoid any cuts and mishaps. Here’s your ready reckoner on how to ace certain knife skills as you prepare your favourite dishes, courtesy chef Anahita Dhondy.

“Let me introduce you to the 10 basic knife skills you must know in the kitchen,” she said in an Instagram post.

Here are her 10-must know knife skills
Chop – This is the easiest style of cutting you’ll use in the kitchen. It requires cutting the onions into irregular pieces. It can be used for everyday vegetables.
Cube – Using a more precise method than chopping, cubed ingredients are cut to a uniform size. This cut can be used for salads or stir fry.

Dice – Dice refers to cutting vegetable into cubes of a specific size while chop is less precise. Diced onions are used in dressings and marinades.
Slice – Slicing is a general term that means to cut across the grain into thin, uniform pieces. Almost every fruit or vegetable can be sliced, as well as other ingredients like cheese and bread.
Make sure you use these hacks (Source: Pexels)
Rondelle – The word rondelle means round, and is usually used to cut conical or cylindrical vegetables and fruits such as carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, and bananas.
Julienne – This cut looks like a matchstick and is usually used for vegetables like carrots, celery, and cucumbers. It ensures the vegetables cook evenly. This is used in Asian cooking.
Brunoise – The brunoise technique is an additional step after you have completed julienning your ingredients. Once your ingredients have been julienned, you then dice again to create small cubes. It is used an aromatic garnish on dishes.
Mince – Mincing is a fine, non-uniform cut. It’s good for garlic, parsley, herbs, and nuts. The tip here is to keep cutting and chopping until you think you are done, and then cut some more! It is used for sauces and or a dish that is sauteed and cooked quickly.

Chiffonade – The chiffonade cut is for any kind of food that is a leaf. Roll up your leaf into a tight tube and cut across the tube to get long strips of leaves.
Batonnet – The clue is in the name. The technique is used to cut baton shape vegetables (for example, chips). “Think of the batonnet thick chip type of cut,” she said.
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