Slicing an Onion
Hello, my name is Helen Rennie,
I'm the founder of Helen's Kitchen cooking school,
and today we're going to learn to slice an onion.
If you're tearing up just by watching this video,
let me assure you that there is a solution
to this persistent problem.
Goggles, contact lenses,
anything that'll seal your eyes off.
And so that you don't feel like a dork
wearing goggles in your kitchen,
I'm going to wear them with you.
Cut the top and the root end of the onion off.
Don't be afraid to cut a good bit of the root off,
this will help the onion strips separate.
Set the onion on one of the
two flat surfaces you just created,
and cut it in half.
Peel the outer layers,
starting with the first decent layer,
because it often has dry spots.
If the onion is large,
you can nick the outer layer
to make peeling easier.
Clean off your board.
Find the natural lines on the onion.
You will be cutting parallel to these lines.
This will give you even strips.
If you cut perpendicular to the lines,
you will end up with semicircles of various size.
This might work nicely in a salad,
if your slices are paper-thin.
But for all the cooking applications,
you want strips, not semicircles.
Hold the onion with a claw grip,
and place it towards the back of the knife.
Start cutting at about a 30º angle to the board,
and gradually straighten out your knife on each cut
until it gets to 90º.
Then join your claw grip to the knife blade,
and continue slicing
until the onion gets unstable,
which is about now.
Tilt the onion forward and finish slicing.
Make a few batches of caramelised onions,
and you'll get so fast,
you will not need goggles any more.
From Helen's Kitchen in Boston,
happy cooking and baking to you.
Produced by Helen Rennie. Music by Django Reinhardt.
Copyright (c) 2011 by Helen Rennie. All Rights Reserved.
More techniques at beyondsalmon.com