Onion -- dice

Dicing an Onion

Dicing 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 dice an onion.

Onion Anatomy 101

This is an onion top,

and this is the onion root.

The root is what's going to hold the onion together

as you're dicing it,

so keep as much of the root on as possible.

If you're dealing with a hairy onion,

I suggest giving it a buzz cut

to prevent the hairs from getting into

the finished product.

Cut the top of the onion off completely,

and set it on this flat surface

that you've just created.

Cut it in half.

Nick the outer layers with the knife

to make peeling easier,

and peel everything starting with

the first decent-looking layer.

Clean off your board.

Sit the onion on the board

with the root facing away from you.

We'll be cutting the onion

parallel to the lines in its layers.

Normally, we use the back of the knife

for cutting things,

but this time we'll use the tip,

so that we can keep the onion

attached at the root.

Now let's rotate the onion

so that the root is near your guiding hand,

and the top is near your knife hand.

You'll need one or more parallel cuts

through this onion.

Here are a few tips on them.

Set the onion close to the edge of the board,

and get the knife handle and your hand

off the board, to make sure that you are low

and parallel to the board.

Now make one or more parallel cuts.

For an onion this size, we need a couple.

Do not try to jam the knife through the onion head-on.

Start on the point of the onion that's closest to you,

and the point on the knife that's closest to you,

and go in a circular motion

that ends with the tip of the knife inside the onion.

The goal is not to cut all the way to the root;

that would be counterproductive,

your onion would fall apart.

The goal is to cut through the tallest point on the onion.

The last step is to slice the onion

perpendicular to the cuts you made in the first step.

Here, we're back to our normal way of cutting

where we use the back of the knife

and the claw grip.

If you want, you can work your way around the root,

or of course you can just discard it.

Hate that parallel cut?

Here's another option.

Start by slicing the onion

using the tip of the knife,

keeping it attached at the root.

Now cut the onion in half through the root.

Turn the two halves 90º,

and make a couple of cuts

that go all the way down,

but keep the onion attached at the root.

Turn the halves back 90º,

join them together,

rotate the onion

so that the root end is near your guiding hand

and the top of the onion is near your knife hand.

And finish slicing, using the claw grip

and the back of the knife.

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