- 2 days ago
In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto shares 29 hacks for your vegetables. From the best way to store fresh herbs to the most efficient way to cut onions, Frank’s chef hacks are sure to save you time in the kitchen, keep your produce fresher for longer, and help you get the most out of your vegetables at home.
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00:00Today I'm going to show you vegetable hacks.
00:02I learned these techniques at culinary school and on the job and you can use them every
00:06single time you cook.
00:10A lot of times in culinary school we teach how to cut an onion a certain way and I personally
00:15do not like the method they teach in culinary school.
00:18Traditionally you're taught to cut the onion like this and then give a cross cut like this
00:23and I always thought that was a little strange because we're teaching students and people
00:26how to cut towards themselves.
00:28This method works.
00:29You get a decent dice but the best way I feel to do it is put it on its flat side and instead
00:35of cutting it like this cut it across the grain.
00:40Not all the way through.
00:41Make sure you leave that end attached and then we kind of go up and over.
00:44We follow the contour of the onion.
00:46With the end piece I just make a couple of cuts, chop it up and you have an onion diced
00:50in basically one third of the time.
00:53If I'm going to eat raw onion instead of having that like really sharp flavor or having really
00:58stinky onion breath and we take our onions and we will put them into a bowl and we're
01:02going to soak these in a little bit of cold water.
01:04It makes the onions a little crisper but it also takes away some of that oniony bite.
01:09Let them soak for about two or three minutes, agitate them and then put them through a colander
01:14and your onions will lose that really strong oniony bite.
01:17If you've come here for vegetable hacks and tips, I'm sure you're expecting me to say
01:21how to stop crying from onions.
01:23The thing that I found actually works the best are contact lenses.
01:26I've had contact lenses for about my whole life basically and that's the only thing that
01:31has saved me from crying from onions.
01:33So onion skins and onion trim.
01:35I save this, right?
01:37I use this in my stock.
01:38This was taught to me in culinary school by a nice professor, Dieter Faulkner.
01:43He was from Germany and he says, no, you use the onion skins in your stock, it gives them
01:47a good couple.
01:48In front of me, I have two stocks made with the same ingredients except this one has onion
01:54skin in it.
01:55I find that chicken stock sometimes without onion skins turns a little grayish and when
02:00I use the onion skins and trim, I get a nice golden stock.
02:03That doesn't change the flavor all that much, but people eat with their eyes.
02:07If you see kind of a gray chicken stock or a nice golden one, you're going to choose a nice
02:12golden stock.
02:16Fresh herbs are a staple in restaurants.
02:18We use them all the time.
02:19The problem that we have with fresh herbs is they wilt, they're very delicate.
02:23They kind of like start to go bad really fast.
02:26Technically you could use this, but it's really not going to be that great.
02:30So what I like to do with my herbs is that when I get them home, I'm going to take a piece
02:34of paper towel, take your bundle of herbs, put it in your paper towel, wrap it up.
02:39This is going to keep any excess moisture away from the herbs.
02:43Put them into a Ziploc bag, seal it up.
02:45And when I store herbs like this, sometimes they can last up to a week.
02:49These are some herbs I've had in the fridge overnight, wrapped in a paper towel in a plastic
02:53bag.
02:54If you look at them, they're still beautiful.
02:56The leaves are crisp.
02:57They're firm.
02:58They're just going to melt it out and dry it out.
02:59So using this method, your herbs will last you a lot longer.
03:03Most people over chop their herbs and lose all of the flavor into their cutting board.
03:08We basically get a fine dust of chopped parsley.
03:11So my approach to chopping herbs is a little bit different, right?
03:15First of all, I'm not too worried about having a little stem in there.
03:18As long as the stems aren't big and thick like this, they're going to add some flavor
03:23to your herbs.
03:24Cut these off.
03:25Do not get rid of those stems.
03:26I'm putting them aside, I get my herbs and I bundle them together, rolling this up and
03:31making it tight like that.
03:33And I'm going to chop them really small here so I don't have to run my knife through them
03:37too many times.
03:38I still have some big leaves in there so I gave my pile a little bit of a turn.
03:42Go really tight on your chop.
03:45And that's basically as much as I will chop parsley or cilantro.
03:48For parsley and cilantro, some stem is okay.
03:51But the ones that are a little thicker and woodier, don't throw them away.
03:55They're perfect for stock.
03:57And if I have herbs like thyme, thyme has really woody stems.
04:01So I can take my thyme off of the plant and instead of chopping this woody stem, just take
04:07that stem and throw it right into your stock.
04:10Zero waste.
04:11Flavors your stock really well.
04:15One thing that drives me nuts is watching people cut bell peppers.
04:19What most people do is they'll cut off this end, cut off this end, and then take the core
04:24out.
04:25To me that's so wasteful because they usually throw the ends out.
04:27What I like to do is take my bell pepper, cut it down the center.
04:31Cutting your bell pepper in half equals less waste.
04:34The core kind of just comes right out.
04:36Give it a tap to get our seeds out and we're done.
04:38A lot of people when they get a spicy chili, like a jalapeno, think that the seeds hold
04:44all the heat.
04:45And they are wrong.
04:46If you cut this pepper in half, these white ribs right here actually hold a lot of heat
04:51in the peppers.
04:52So if you want to make your chilies less spicy, cut it in half, take those ribs out, tap out
04:58my seeds, take out that seed pod.
05:01Make sure that we get all these white ribs off and your chili will be a little less spicy.
05:06So the seeds can be spicy, but the spice comes from the ribs.
05:10One technique I love, I take my pepper, I put it on a really hot grill or a hot grill
05:14pan and we're just going to let it char on all sides.
05:19And then get it into a bowl right away with some plastic wrap.
05:22Not only is the pepper going to steam, it's going to continue cooking.
05:25This is going to make it easy to take off the skin.
05:28This has been steaming for about a half hour, 45 minutes.
05:32And if you look, not only do I have some juice there, which you want to keep because that
05:36juice has a lot of flavor.
05:37You can see that my skin is super wrinkly.
05:41Look how easy the skin comes off.
05:43The steaming is key to this.
05:44Our pepper has some nice brownness and some caramelization to it.
05:48And that's how you roast and peel a pepper.
05:53This might be a controversial take, but as a chef, I'm always trying to save time.
05:57When I peel my potatoes, I don't wash them before I peel them.
06:01I am always going to wash them before I cook them or process them.
06:05So I feel like it's a wasted step.
06:07Most potatoes nowadays are cleaned in the processing plant.
06:11So whatever dirt is on there, it's just a light film of dirt.
06:15Now one of the things about potatoes is you never want to store them with onions.
06:19Believe it or not, onions give off a gas that make potatoes go bad quicker.
06:24So you want to keep them in a cool dry place?
06:27Just cool dry place in a separate area.
06:29Don't overcomplicate peeling potatoes.
06:32It's oblong, so the top and the bottom are always kind of just the small sides.
06:36I always peel my top first, then my bottom, and then just connect the lines.
06:43Now one cool thing about potato peelers, and most people don't know what it is.
06:47I call that the doohickey or the whatchamacallit.
06:50That is there to get eyes out of the potatoes.
06:53So if there's any blemishes, you want to use that to get any blemishes out of your potato.
06:57At this point, I'm going to put my potato in water.
07:00Storing your potatoes in water prevents oxidation.
07:05Ginger is one of those things that I think confuses a lot of people because it has a lot
07:09of knobs and a lot of different things going on with it.
07:12But ginger can be actually very easy to work with.
07:15Ginger has lots of fibers in it, and those fibers tend to get caught in the peeler.
07:19So when I peel my ginger, I usually take these little knobs off.
07:22I don't throw those knobs away.
07:23If I do a ginger broth or I put it in my pho, I use those for that.
07:28But for the most part, when it comes to peeling ginger, use a spoon.
07:32I turn it over, and I just rub it or pull against my ginger.
07:37And basically, the peel kind of just slides right off.
07:40It goes over the bumps.
07:42It's cleaner.
07:42It's easier.
07:43There's no fibers caught in your peeler.
07:46Use the spoon, people.
07:47Now that my ginger's peeled, I want to chop it.
07:50And we're going to smash it for easier chopping.
07:52Cut it into rounds or coins, basically the size of like maybe a nickel.
07:57I wouldn't go anything bigger than a quarter.
07:59Ginger has fibers running through it.
08:01So we're cutting across those fibers and making them small.
08:04And then instead of kind of just chopping this up with my knife now,
08:07what I do is I put it on the edge of my board, give it a smash.
08:11Push that aside.
08:12If it doesn't get really small, give it another smash.
08:15And then right now, if I just run my knife through it,
08:18quick and easy chop ginger by smashing it.
08:24Blanching is a process where we take a vegetable
08:26and we submerge them into boiling water.
08:28Then we put them into an ice bath.
08:30So we start cooking them and then we arrest or stop the cooking.
08:33Do not put your beans in water that's not boiling.
08:36They'll be in there too long and they'll probably get mushy.
08:38We do this in restaurants because we don't always have time
08:41to cook the beans all the way through.
08:42So when we blanch them, we are par cooking them
08:45and getting them ready for service.
08:47This is a great tip at home.
08:49If you're doing a big dinner for friends and family,
08:51getting your greens and your vegetables par cooked
08:54makes everything so much quicker.
08:56Depending on the vegetable,
08:57the final cook time could just be warming them through
09:00or getting them hot.
09:01The beans are going to take at least a minute or two.
09:03The best way to determine if our beans are ready
09:06is to actually taste them.
09:08Blow on it.
09:10It's tender, but it still has a little bit of snap to it.
09:14So these are coming out.
09:16Drain them into your ice water.
09:18When I blanch my green beans a day ahead,
09:20I will take them out of the water, dry them off,
09:22leave them on a towel, wrap them up, put them in the fridge.
09:25Next day, they're ready to go.
09:29How many times have you had cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes for your salad,
09:33and you're sitting there trying to cut each one individually,
09:36and then your hand starts to cramp up and you get tired?
09:39I have a technique that we use in restaurants all the time.
09:42I have two deli container lids.
09:44If you don't have deli container lids, you can use small plates.
09:47Instead of cutting them individually,
09:49we will take our cherry tomatoes,
09:51put them on the deli container.
09:53We take the other deli container and put it on top.
09:55Hand on top, get our knife, slice, kind of saw through it.
09:59Now we have seven or eight tomatoes cut in half in no time at all.
10:04So I have a tomato right here that is kind of nice red looking tomato,
10:09but when you squeeze it, it is hard as a rock.
10:12This is what my dad calls a cardboard tomato.
10:15One thing we used to do when we had a tomato that really wasn't ready to go,
10:19literally we put it on the windowsill by the sink,
10:21where it was a little warm, got a little sun,
10:23and the tomato eventually would start to kind of break down a little and get nice and soft.
10:28Much more tasty and much more acceptable.
10:30Personally, I'm not a big fan of tomato skin.
10:33What I like to do is score the bottom and you can take the core out.
10:37What I could do is blanch this and then shock it in ice water like we did with the green beans earlier.
10:43The skin peels off super easy.
10:48When it comes to shopping for vegetables, including zucchinis,
10:51I'm always looking for something that's heavy for its size.
10:54Bigger does not necessarily mean better with zucchini.
10:56Sometimes when you get a really giant zucchini,
10:58the seeds are really kind of cottony and you have to cut them out.
11:02It doesn't have as much flavor.
11:04It tends to be a little more on the watery side.
11:06I actually like to choose a zucchini more around this size.
11:09If I'm going for a bigger zucchini, I like this size.
11:12I like the texture of the zucchini flesh.
11:15I don't necessarily like the seeds.
11:16So I'll almost never cut my zucchini in rounds.
11:19When I see this at restaurants,
11:21I always feel like someone's just got kind of lazy for the day.
11:24What I like to do with the zucchini is cut the ends off, cut it in half,
11:27and then I cut it in half again.
11:29Flip it on its flat side and then cut into quarters.
11:32And then what I do is I turn it on its back and I cut out the seed pod.
11:38This part of the zucchini tends to get spongy and soft when it cooks.
11:41I can't stand that.
11:43You can always cut it smaller like this.
11:46Or if you want to be a little fancy, you can cut it on angles.
11:48It's like the best bite of the zucchini without any of the soft weirdness in the middle.
11:56When you're shopping for asparagus, right,
11:57one of the things you really want to look for when you're choosing it
12:00is that the tips are nice and firm and like solid.
12:04You see this tip?
12:05That is a nice firm tip.
12:07It's not squishy.
12:08It's not soft.
12:10Make sure the asparagus isn't too wiggly.
12:12If most of the asparagus looks firm like this,
12:14the tips are nice and dry and not squishy, go for that bundle.
12:18Now that we have our asparagus trimmed, what am I going to do with this?
12:21It's a third of my asparagus.
12:23I will make a soup or a puree out of this.
12:25Not only will cooking soften the fibers, if I puree it and strain it,
12:29I'm going to have some great asparagus flavor without using the whole asparagus.
12:34So what would be my trim or my waste turns into something delicious.
12:41When you choose an artichoke in the store, one thing you want to look for,
12:44as with most vegetables, is that they're heavy for their size.
12:47If you squeeze it and it's spongy, chances are you have an artichoke that's going to be a little dry,
12:53it's not going to have a big heart, and it's not going to be all that delicious.
12:56You want it to be nice and firm.
12:57Be careful when you squeeze because sometimes there's spikes on there and don't get stuck.
13:02Whenever I cut artichokes, I usually wear some sort of glove.
13:07After you trim two or three artichokes, it will stain your hands and it doesn't come off that easily.
13:12I've also seen people that didn't wear gloves that rub a little oil on your hands
13:16so that it didn't stain as much.
13:18But I think gloves are the best foolproof method.
13:20Artichokes are one of those vegetables that oxidize fairly quick.
13:24And what we do for this is we get a bowl of water.
13:26You want to put some acid in it.
13:28Lemon juice works great and it keeps our artichokes from oxidizing or getting black.
13:33Another thing about artichokes is that there's a lot of waste because you have a lot of leaves.
13:37One thing that I like to promote is the stems.
13:40This stem is a nice chunky meaty stem.
13:43Don't throw this away.
13:44Artichoke stems are delicious.
13:46So peel off the woody exterior and cook it with your artichokes.
13:51Don't waste your stems.
13:53These pieces here, you can see there's tons of fiber in them,
13:57but that piece of artichoke stem will be nice and tender when you cook it.
14:00If you take all these techniques and hacks and put them into your everyday cooking,
14:04it's going to save you time, energy, money, stress.
14:08You're just going to become a better cook all around.
14:12If you have any vegetable hacks or tips that I missed, put them down in the comments.
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