So tidy!
I try to keep my work product uniform and tidy. In addition to promoting an even cook, it just seems out of place to be eating a complex sauce and come across a chunk of onion that belongs on a Whataburger.
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Varies for me. And itās about flavors rather than just visual. Like some here, I welcome variation in textures and doneness that sometimes comes specifically from vaggies that are somewhat irregular in cut.
But at other times, rather seldom, Iāll go to very fine dicing of, say, an onion for risotto. My technique involves a bit of wastage of the inmost layers of the onion, but a really fine and uniform dice breaks more cell walls.
This thing about cell walls, which release flavor compounds when broken, is also why Iāve been devoted to using mortar and pestle for many thingsānothing beats smashing that basil for pesto, or crushing that lemongrass for a marinade, etc.
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Sure. Do you ever grate onion?
Not sure I ever tried that. Maybe once for something in a recipe. But itās never been a habit. Theyāre not too moist for that?
Quite liquid-y, but the juice itself is a flavorful thing where you donāt want to see onion. You can drain and keep the pulp if you do.
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It works for Gordon:
I grate onion for gyro meat prep and for regular meatloaf, and for some curries. Fat side of the grater, dump into a muslin cloth and squeeze out the liquid. As far as I can remember, thatās the only time I grate onion.
I similarly grate and squeeze cucumber for tzatziki sauce.
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Of course. That, and the accompanying knuckle blood, are essential to latke prep.
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ā¦and I grate cucumber for raita.
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Iāve had raita in Indian restaurants but donāt think Iād ever made it until last week. I made it with half of the cucumber shredded like I do for the tzatziki, and the other half I chopped into bite sized pieces.
I was making chicken dum biryani for dinner and the recipe I was following suggested raita be served with, and provided a linked recipe. It was a good accompaniment.
I would say that it is almost always served with Raita in India and at Restaurants that cater to Indian clientele.
I have never seen it served without Raita anyhow.
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For those of you grating onionā¦ do you rinse them, or are you looking for that sulfury flavor?
It depends on what I am preparing. Carrots both sliced and diced I try to make as consistent as possible as it makes each piece cook at the same rate. Butter for rubbing into flour to make pastry does not need to be equal sized. If I am making remoulade then again I try to produce equal size matchsticks of celeraic because no one especially me likes getting large chunks of it and spoling the dish. The one thing I have little success in slicing equal thicknesses of is bread which is probably not something that a home baker should admit to particularly when their passion is making bread. Oh and those Scandinavian cheese slicers never achieved a straight slice; the cheese looks like a downhill ski slope when I have finished.
Other dishes such as cloeslaw I get the food processor out and use both the slicing and grating discs to ensure consistency of cut. Or a mandoline it there is only one vegatable to slice and then only when a few pieces are needed.
There is no āsulfuryā flavor when cooked.
When I am using Onion for things like uncooked Salsas I always soak/wash Onion with cold Water to remove the flavor/sharpness I think you are referring to. Even when not Grating or Grinding
Hey Scott. Iāve never thought to, and donāt rinse them. But the only time Iām grating onions is for making gyro meat sausage. But Iām also mostly using Vidalia onions, which seem to be a bit lower in the sulfur gradient than some other onions.
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After 30+ years in a āproā kitchen(retired now) my knife skills are still pretty good, my eyesight not so much. I still take pride in a nice dice/slice/brunoise/chop etc, but Iām not as OCD about it as I once was.
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That is what we do, too. Half is shredded, and half is chopped.
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I am another home baker. I always had restaurant quality (Dexter) offset slicers, but last time I gave up the extra two inches and bought an Au Sabot bread knife from Flotsam and Fork. This knife has greatly improved my bread slicing. The pretty handle is a bonus.
