Knife Skills Practice

This Saturday I spent at Lunacy Black Market. Chef Luna gave me some interesting challenges and assisted me in honing my knife skills. My biggest challenge through the day was following through on a complete slicing stroke.

I started the day julienning a red pepper into lozenges (diamonds)- TINY ones! Then I sliced a sweet potato into thin slices and proceeded to julienne those. We deep fried the strips and used them as a soup topper. They were a nice addition to the pureed chickpea and tomato soup, both aesthetically on top and a tasty, slightly sweet crunch while eating the soup.

Next I tournéd several carrot pieces. It is a challenge working with something so small, but little did I know I would get to work with something even smaller. After the carrot came a potato- seems manageable, until Chef Luna cut the potato into small pieces. My hand cramped up from trying to hold them. I whittled these away into what ultimately looked like cloves of garlic, hardly the football shape they should have been.

I worked more on my knife strokes and julienned more peppers and then thinly sliced some garlic, used in Black Market's shrimp dish. Chef Luna would make me cut forward and then make me switch and cut backwards. The switch can be equated to patting your head and rubbing your stomach. My brain didn't want to switch quickly.

Upon finishing the garlic, Chef Luna said I needed to get some coffee. I thought he was going to make me tourné a coffee bean. I was very curious to see his demonstration. Rather, he busted out laughing; the coffee grinds get the garlic smell off your fingers. Duh! (and phew!!)

CONCLUSION: I will soon purchase a tourné knife.

It was a good day of practice. I will continue some work at home and am looking forward to potato & leek soup with the scraps. Dalliscious!