Sauces and stocks

Welcome to the first class of Homemade: Cooking School, a new Free Press series featuring in-depth cooking tutorials from professional local chefs.

These monthly guides were created with instructors from Red River College Polytechnic’s culinary arts program and will provide useful tips for newbies and confident cooks alike.

We’re kicking things off with a lesson on knife skills led by chef Terry Gereta.

Gereta and his wife owned the former Mise Bistro & Lounge on Corydon Avenue for more than a decade until he made the move to teaching full time in 2015.

At Red River, he teaches students how to work in a full-service, public-facing kitchen at Jane’s, a fine-dining restaurant on the main floor of the Paterson Global Foods Institute.

A culinary career wasn’t what he had in mind when he landed his first kitchen job in 1984.

“I fell into it and was really good at it,” Gereta says, adding his favourite thing about cooking is “the speed of it, the variety of the job, the multiple chances to get it right. You’re always going for the same thing and trying to perfect it every time.”

That’s a perfect segue into knife skills.

Choose the right knife

There are knives for cutting tomatoes, knives for deboning meat and knives for slicing sashimi. While it’s nice to have the right tool for the job, you’ll find more value in multipurpose utensils.

Gereta recommends owning three basic knives:

● Paring knife: A small knife with a 3- to 4-inch blade used for peeling, trimming and precision cuts.

● Petty or utility knife: A versatile knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade used for medium-sized ingredients and in-between tasks.

● Chef’s knife: A long 6- to 12-inch knife used for virtually any kitchen job, from cutting meat to dicing vegetables to slicing herbs.

Knives can be an expensive investment. Keep an eye out for good-quality second-hand knives that can be sharpened back into commission.

Maintenance, care and storage

A sharp knife is a safe knife, says Gereta.

“If you have a dull knife and you try and cut something, it will probably move and, more often than not, you’ll cut yourself.”

A dull knife will also tear food instead of slicing it cleanly.

He recommends getting knives professionally sharpened once per year and using a honing or sharpening steel — a handled metal rod with an abrasive surface — regularly to keep the cutting edge straight and sharp.

Hold the steel in your non-dominant hand and keep it steady while running the edge of the knife along the rod from the heel (the area closest to the handle) to the tip at a slight angle. Work slowly and repeat several times on both sides of the cutting edge.

Hand wash your knife with soap and water as soon as you’ve finished using it to avoid the need for scrubbing, which can be dangerous with a sharp tool. Never put knives in the dishwasher.

Keep your tools in tip-top shape by storing them properly.

“The bad way is in a drawer, the good way is somewhere they won’t bump into other things,” he says.

Knife blocks and wall-mounted magnetic strips both fall into the “good” category.

Practise the mechanics

Learning how to handle your knives correctly will make kitchen prep safer and more efficient.

Hold your knife as if going in for a handshake. Wrap your fingers around the handle firmly but comfortably and choke up on the blade slightly with your thumb and a curved index finger. This grip allows for more control while chopping.

Guide the ingredients with your other hand using a claw-like grip to protect your fingers from the sharp cutting edge. Pinch the item with your thumb and pinky and curl your remaining fingers away from the blade. The flat side of the knife should butt up your knuckles, removing the risk of nicking an outstretched fingertip.

Keep the tip of your knife in contact with the cutting board and move the tool in a wave-like motion that begins in the shoulder.

Keep your elbow tucked into your side for stability and control.

Steady your cutting surface by placing a damp towel or a non-slip mat underneath your cutting board.

Repetition and focus are key to improving knife skills.

“Make sure you respect your knife. I’ve chopped a fair amount of carrots in 40 years, but I still have to pay attention,” Gereta says.

Get organized

Watchers of The Bear might be familiar with the concept of mise en place. It sounds fancy, but mise en place simply refers to the process of gathering ingredients and organizing your workstation prior to cooking.

Good mise en place means having all the ingredients in a recipe chopped, prepped and portioned before moving on to the cooking directions. That way you won’t be stuck cutting something while another ingredient is left frying on the stove — a form of multitasking that can lead to burned or overcooked food.

Solid organization can also make cleanup easier.

“For a home cook, having good mise en place is important because the dishes can pile up pretty quick,” says Gereta, who abides by the “if you can lean, you can clean” school of thought and usually tidies up while things are simmering safely.

Learn the common cuts

Recipes often call for ingredients to cut a certain way. This is because food cooks more evenly when everything is the same size and shape.

Flavour distribution, texture and appearance of a final dish can also be improved with cut consistency.

Students at Red River learn the textbook dimensions of different cuts down to the millimetre, but there’s more wiggle room for home cooks.

“It’s all personal preference, as long as everything is the same size,” Gereta says.

The first cuts are the deepest, or rather, the most important. When dicing a carrot, for example, square off the ends and ensure the remaining sections are the same length to create a common baseline before breaking down the vegetable further.

Here are definitions of some common knife cuts:

● Julienne: Long, thin strips

● Batonnet: Small sticks; think carrot sticks and French fries

● Dice: Small- or medium-sized uniform cubes

● Brunoise: A very small dice or mince

● Chiffonade: Leafy greens or herbs rolled into a cigar-like shape and finely sliced

Consider composting or saving your vegetable scraps to use in soup stocks — a topic we’ll discuss further in next month’s Cooking School on stocks and sauces.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com