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Basic Techniques

If you run across a recipe and wonder how to cut a carrot into matchsticks, deal with a whole garlic bulb, roast spices, or even the difference between cubing, dicing, chopping and mincing, this section is the place to find the answers!

Roasting, Grinding, and Peeling Whole Spices

Cardamom Pods

To open a cardamom pod, place it on a cutting board. Place a small knife on its side flat on top of the cardamom and press on the knife to crack the pod open. Pry it apart with your fingers and remove the black seeds.

If you need to crush the seeds for a recipe, use a mortar and pestle to coarsely crush the seeds. Alternatively, put the seeds in a plastic bag. Put the bag on a cutting board and hit with a rolling pin until the seeds are coarsely crushed.

Roasting Whole Spices

Roasting spices is a common Indian technique used to deepen and bring out the flavors of the spices. The intense aroma given off by the spices while roasting and grinding them is amazing! It is best to roast and grind spices just when you plan to use them, since they lose their potency over time.

1 Place a small skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is heated, add the whole spices. Roast the spices until they are fragrant, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. (Roast cumin seeds until they are dark brown, but not burnt.) Transfer the spices to a bowl and let cool before grinding.

2 Place the spices in a mortar and pestle and grind to a fine powder. Alternatively, put the spices on a small piece of foil, fold the foil over the seeds, and roll a rolling pin over them to crush the spices into a fine powder. You can also use an electric coffee or spice grinder. (In some recipes, spices are ground without roasting, such as mustard seeds.)

3 Use now or place in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 months.

Freezing Raw Vegetables

Fresh vegetables may be frozen if you will not be able to use them soon. My mother always has more tomatoes than she can cook in her garden, so she simply washes them and puts them in freezer-safe plastic bags and places it in her freezer for up to a month. When she is ready to cook with them, she thaws them by bringing them out at room temperature, and then she cooks with them. Similarly, most vegetables may be frozen such as okra, eggplant, and opo squash. You may freeze these vegetables whole, without cutting them up. Blanching is used to set the color and flavor of vegetables before freezing, but I do not find it necessary.

Preparing Dried Beans

Kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans, and black-eyed peas.

1 Place the dried beans on a plate. Sift through them and remove any grit or blemished beans.

2 Transfer the beans to a large bowl. Rinse the beans three times by repeatedly filling the bowl with cold water and carefully draining off the water. Add cold water to cover the beans. Discard any beans that float to the top of the water. Cover the bowl and let soak overnight at room temperature to allow the beans to expand and become tender.

3 The next morning, place a colander in the sink. Pour the soaked beans into the colander and rinse thoroughly.

4 Place the drained beans, 4 cups (1 liter) water and ¾ teaspoon salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. It is okay if the water gets frothy. (For kidney beans use 5 cups (1.25 liters) of water.)

5 Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the saucepan. Simmer until the beans are very soft, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.

6 Keep 2 cups (500 ml) of the cooking liquid (broth) and discard the rest. If for some reason you do not have at least 2 cups (500 ml) of the cooking liquid, add some water to make up the balance. (For black-eyed peas keep 1½ cups (375 ml) of the cooking liquid.)

Blanching and Slivering Almonds

Though referred to as nuts," almonds are actually the dry fruit from the almond tree. In this book, I use almonds that have been blanched and slivered, which means the brown skin has been removed (blanched) and the almond is sliced into thin longitudinal strips (slivered). Blanched and slivered almonds are usually found in small clear packets in the baking section of grocery stores. If you do not find them, it's easy to blanch whole almonds at home as described here. My mother tells me eating almonds improves your memory, and that it is good to eat a few daily. She soaks them overnight in water, peels and eats them along with her breakfast.

To blanch almonds, immerse them in a small bowl of water and microwave them on normal level for 1 minute. Let them cool and then remove the skin with your fingers (the skin should easily slip off). You can also immerse the almonds in water in a small saucepan and boil them on the stovetop for two minutes. Let them cool and then slip the skin off with your fingers. Alternatively, let the almonds sit overnight at room temperature in a small bowl with water. In the morning the almonds will be puffed up and tender, and the skin can be easily slipped off with your fingers.

To sliver the blanched almonds, place an almond on a cutting board and use a knife to cut the almond lengthwise into thin strips. Repeat with the other almonds.

Grating, Chopping, and Peeling

Ginger

Using the sharp edge of a small knife or the side edge of a small spoon, scrape off the thin tan skin from just the amount of ginger you want to grate. Grate it using a microplane or on the small holes of a box grater.

Grating

Grating means to shred, and produce, like onions, carrots and ginger can be grated. It can be done using a box grater or mini food processor. Before grating, peel the onion, ginger or carrot (peeling carrots is optional). Use the largest holes on a box grater for onions, and the smaller holes for carrots and ginger (see Box Grater on page 16). A microplane can be used for grating ginger as well. Remember to grate onions just before ready to cook them so they will not smell bad.

Garlic

To chop or mince fresh garlic, first pry off a clove from the garlic bulb with your fingers or by carefully using the tip of a small knife. Place the clove (with the peel on) on a cutting board and lay the side of a chef's knife flat on a clove with the blade facing away from you. Then firmly push down on the knife to smash the clove, which makes it easy to remove the papery white peel. After removing the peel with your fingers, mince or chop the clove with a knife, or you can use a garlic press (and with some presses you don't even need to take the peel off). You can also grate the peeled garlic clove using a microplane or on the small holes of a box grater.

Chopping and Mincing

Chopped food is bite-size or smaller pieces, and minced food is cut into very small pieces (smaller than diced), almost to the point where the food seems crushed, such as minced garlic or minced onion. Mincing food is handy when you do not want to bite into a big piece of garlic or onion, but you would still like your dish to have the flavor evenly dispersed. Mincing garlic can also be done using a garlic press.

Boiling the Potatoes

Boiling potatoes are an easy task, but you do have to factor in the half hour it will take when making a recipe that will use them.

1 Wash the unpeeled potatoes with cold water. In a large pot, add the potatoes, covering them with about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water. Make sure that the level of the water is at least 2 inches (5 cm) from the top of the pot so that the water does not boil over.

2 Cover the pot. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and continue boiling for about 30 minutes, or until you can easily insert a knife into the potato. (Make sure you do not boil them to the point where they become too tender and easily fall apart, especially if you are going to cube or dice them.)

3 Drain the potatoes in a colander and let the potatoes cool slightly so you can handle them, or you can run cold water over them to cool them faster.

4 Using your fingers or a small knife, peel the skin off the potato and discard. The potatoes are now ready to be used in a recipe, or cover and refrigerate them up to 1 day.

NOTE: You may boil the potatoes up to one day in advance. They may be refrigerated already peeled or with the peels on, though it is easier to peel the skin off potatoes when they’re still warm.

Cutting Methods

Fresh Cauliflower

The first time I prepared fresh cauliflower at home without my mother by my side, I was not sure how to cut it. For those new to using fresh cauliflower, here is how to cut it into florets:

1 Pull away the green leaves and discard. Using a small knife, gently scrape away any brown marks on the cauliflower head.

2 Slice off the stem at the bottom of the cauliflower head and discard.

3 Turn the head upside down so that it is stem-side up. Insert a small knife inside the head right next to the core to cut loose the florets from all around the internal stem (core). (The core can be chopped and enjoyed raw or it may be chopped and cooked along with the florets.)

4 Cut all the loose florets into small bite-size pieces.

5 Place the florets in a colander and wash with cold water.

Half-moons

Sometimes I specify a half-moon" cut for onions, which is a semi-circle made by slicing an onion crosswise into rings, and then cutting the rings in half to create half-moons. Or, an onion may be cut lengthwise in half, and then both halves should be thinly sliced across to create half-moons.

Fresh Broccoli

1 Cut off any leaves on the broccoli stalk and discard.

2 Cut off the thicker bottom portion of the stalk. (The stalk can be peeled and chopped and cooked along with the florets.) You will now be left with the crown of the broccoli.

3 Use a small knife to separate the crown into individual florets. If some of the florets are big, cut them gently through the stem.

Cubes and Dice

The standard size cube size is ½ inch (1.25 cm) or larger. It is okay if all of the cubes are not exact squares, or if they have some rounded sides, but try to cut almost equal-size pieces so that the food cooks at an even rate. When a recipe calls for an ingredient to be diced, cut it into small cubes that are approximately ¼ inch (6 mm) or smaller. When a recipe calls for something such as green chili peppers or onions to be finely diced, the pieces are cut even smaller.

Matchsticks

Vegetables such as carrots and potatoes are commonly cut into strips called matchsticks, but usually not as thin as an actual matchstick. When creating thin matchsticks, the cut is known as julienne." The vegetable is first cut into thin slices, and then the slices are cut across to the desired length, resulting in a short or long matchstick." I like to use this attractive cut when preparing the carrots for Vegetable Rice Pilaf (page 65) and Vegetable Curry with Tofu (page 103).

1 Cut off the both ends of the carrot and discard.

2 Thinly peel off the outer skin and discard and then wash the carrot with cold water. Or you can leave the nutrient-rich peel on and thoroughly scrub the carrot with your hands or a vegetable brush.

3 Cut the carrot in half crosswise to make it an easier size to work with.

4 Cut each half lengthwise down the middle.

5 Cut each piece in half lengthwise again. For the thicker part of a carrot, you might want to make another lengthwise cut to create strips of even size.

6 Stack the strips and cut them cross-wise into approximately 2-inches (5 cm) long matchsticks.