The information on this page will give you the opportunity to explore the themes covered in this module in more detail. You should be spending around 4 hours/week doing this. The more time you spend practicing your knife skills prior to starting the next module the better prepared you will be to create kitchen magic!
Which knives do you have?
Go back and read the knife handling material again, then look at your own kitchen knife collection. Create a simple table for yourself on a piece of paper similar to the one below. For each knife you own:
- Check if it is sharp – if not how can you get them sharp? Consider ordering a whetstone (these are available from major online retailers – no need to get an expensive one but look for one with a coarse side around 800-2000 grit and a fine side around 3000-6000 grit)
- Make sure you can recognise and name the different parts of each knife (e.g. heel, point, cutting edge, butt etc.)
- List all of the typical kitchen cutting tasks each knife is suited to.
| Knife Type | Is it sharp? | Tasks it can be used for |
|---|---|---|
| Chef’s Knife | ||
| Paring Knife | ||
| Carving/Slicing Knife | ||
| Boning Knife | ||
| Other Knife |
Practice some vegetable cuts
- Start with carrots, onions and celery – or whatever you’ve got in your kitchen.
- Practice cutting carrots into julienne, then cut some of the julienne into carrot brunoise
- Practice dicing an onion finely – watch Gordon Ramsay demonstrate the technique
- Practice cutting celery into batons
- Remember to use safe knife handling practices at all times!
Watch
Dicing an Onion, Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay demonstrates how a chef dices an onion into consistent, even small dice and uses good knife safety skills.
Duration: 1.15
Make a Vegetable Nage
A nage is a type of easy to make, light and fragrant vegetable stock . You can use the chopped vegetables and offcuts you have been practicing with to make this recipe. Vegetable stocks are an excellent (and very cheap) way to add flavour to soups, stews and sauces.
Watch the video below and look at the recipe linked – but don’t worry if you don’t have all the ingredients, just use what you’ve got! Recipes are a guide and with experience you will know which ingredients are essential and which can be omitted or replaced.
Watch
Vegetable Nage
A chef demonstrates how to make a vegetable nage. Note that in the video the chef strains the stock immediately, but leaving the vegetables in the liquid whilst it cools down, and (covered) for up to a day in the fridge will infuse even more flavour into the nage (see recipe linked next)
Duration: 5.54
Reading
Vegetable Nage Recipe
Detailed recipe for a vegetable nage. Feel free to omit what you don’t have or can’t get or replace with similar ingredients.
You can safely omit the wine and simplify the herbs to just parsley (or omit altogether) and also add any vegetable scraps and peelings (but make sure they are washed properly first)
When the nage is fully chilled and strained it is suitable to be frozen for up to 6 months.
URL: https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/chefs-recipes/vegetable-nage#/
Make Minestrone Soup
Minestrone is a classic and rustic Italian soup made with lots of different vegetables, canned beans and thickened with pasta. It includes bacon for flavour, but if you want to make a vegetarian or vegan version you can leave out the bacon and the Parmesan cheese. You can even make it gluten-free by replacing the pasta with rice or extra canned beans.
Watch
Homemade Minestrone Soup|Keep Cooking & Carry On|Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver demonstrates how to make a simple minestrone soup. In this video, Jamie Oliver uses a vegetable stock cube, but since you have already made some vegetable nage use this instead!
Duration: 4:54
Reading
Minestrone Soup
Recipe for minestrone soup. Omit the vegetable stock cube and replace the water with homemade vegetable nage.
URL: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/soup-recipes/minestrone-soup/
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