Vegetables and fruits make the daily menu healthy and varied. Experiments of scientists have shown that on average 400 grams of fruit per day is enough to maintain health. Moreover, you need to consume constantly different foods in raw or cooked form. Various ways of slicing vegetables and fruits will help to cook any dishes for a wholesome and tasty food every day.
Preparation of products for cutting
In cooking, there are many different ways of slicing edible fruits. Grinding in itself is necessary for convenience in the process of eating food. In addition, the size and shape of the products affect the cooking speed and taste of the food, as well as the appearance of the dish. Cutting vegetables is done for salads, soups, side dishes, stews, pies, marinades and sauces.
Before cutting, the products must undergo primary processing. Sort by selecting only fresh, unspoiled fruits. Then you need to rinse them thoroughly. If there is an unsuitable peel for food, it must be removed, and then rinsed again with water. Peel vegetables immediately before cooking to avoid their wilting and loss of flavor.
Chopping and shredding tools
Modern culinary technologies will come to the aid of every housewife. There are two main ways of slicing vegetables:
- manually (using knives);
- mechanical (on graters or vegetable cutting machines).
If you need to chop a small amount of vegetables, you can use a knife. Both metal and ceramic kitchen tools will do. Take a special knife for fruits and vegetables. The length of its blade is 8 cm. A universal knife with a cutting part of 12 cm can replace it. The tool must be well sharpened.
For chopping products in large quantities, it is more rational to purchase a multifunctional vegetable cutter. Manufacturers offer universal kitchen units with interchangeable mechanisms. With their help, grind any products in all possible ways. For example, they cut apples, make Korean carrots, or cook potatoes to make chips.
The easiest grinding methods
Basic types of slicing vegetables are obtained thanks to methods known to most culinary specialists. These are the elemental forms:
- slices;
- slices;
- cubes;
- straw;
- whetstones;
- ribbons
- circles;
- rings and half rings.
There are general recommendations on how to grind different vegetables for a particular dish. But in the process of culinary experiments, many housewives find their convenient methods, which is not prohibited at all.
The most universal way of cutting is cubes. Vegetables chopped in this way are put in salads, dressing soups, meat stews. Potatoes for frying are cut into slices or cubes, for stewing - slices. Thin straws from vegetables are made for broths and fresh salads. Rings and half rings are obtained by chopping onions and sweet peppers. Boiled potatoes, radishes and fresh tomatoes are cut into circles to decorate dishes. Cabbage, sorrel, spinach, leaf lettuce are cut into narrow long ribbons.
Useful tips for machining products
To preserve the taste and freshness of food, as well as beautifully serve it to the table, use the following recommendations for cutting vegetables:
- Tomatoes need the sharpest knife so that they do not give a lot of excess juice.
- Salad cucumbers are best cut larger. Then the dish will not be too watery due to excess vegetable fluid.
- Small vegetables are cut in half or left whole. For example, cherry tomatoes.
- Parsley and dill have stiff stems; they are not used for cooking.
- If the vegetable consists of parts that are different in texture, for example broccoli, then denser places are cut smaller, and loose ones are larger. Then, during heat treatment, they will be cooked at the same time.
- To reduce the time of frying vegetables, they are cut obliquely.
Original ideas for the festive table
Skills of beautiful slicing vegetables will come in handy when preparing dishes for the arrival of guests. For serving a festive table take wide flat plates. If you take white dishes, the products on it will look bright and attractive.
According to the rules of serving, you should not combine food of plant and animal origin on one dish. In addition, do the vegetable slices separately from the fruit, which will be served as a dessert. You can decorate dishes with herbs. Sauces are served separately.
By the holiday, vegetables and fruits can be chopped in the way that is familiar to you. To surprise guests, use curly shapes of slicing. Then the products will look like this:
- scallops;
- gears;
- stars
- flowers;
- spiral.
Any simple dish will be festive if you add vegetables decorated in the form of a rose to it. Most often, buds are made from tomatoes, as well as from cucumbers, carrots, beets. What the finished decoration looks like, you can see in the photo. Cutting vegetables using the carving technique is a real art!
Beautifully decorated dishes will further delight the eye and arouse appetite.