Knife Skills, Legumes, and Burritos

This week we took a close look at some fundamental techniques in the kitchen, culminating with preparing burritos!

Knife skills are an essential element of food preparation. In level one, we learned the basic knife holds and cuts. This Tasty video served as our initial model:

After reflecting on the video, the students got to work practicing the knife grip (pincher fingers over blade), what to do with the support hand (palm over the back of the blade or bear claw with thumb tucked under), and knife movement (rocking motion).

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The culinary artists turned celery and carrots into small dice (1/4″) and medium dice (1/2″) cuts. Each vegetable was cut into planks, then into strips, and then into cubes. Notice the excellent knife grip and support claw below!

We also practiced roll cuts (also called oblique cuts) on the carrots by angling the knife at a 45 degree angle and rolling the carrot a half turn for each slice. These will be used later on in a soup.

Potatoes were cut into a large dice (3/4″) and roasted to go into our burritos. The diced carrots, celery, and onion (along with minced garlic) went into the beans.

Another fundamental technique in the kitchen is preparing legumes, such as beans, from scratch. Level two students practiced making three different varieties: pinto, black, and great northern.

Here’s the formula we used:

• Soak beans in water overnight in the fridge.
• Rinse and add to a pot.
• For every 1 cup of presoaked dried beans, add 1/4 cup diced onion, 1/4 cup diced carrot, 1/4 cup diced celery, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, and 2 teaspoons salt.
• Fill with water about 1 inch above beans and veggies. Bring to a boil, skim off any particulate on the surface, and reduce heat to a simmer. Add water as necessary to keep an inch above beans and taste periodically until tender, between 1-3 hours.

After all of the components for the burritos had been prepared, it was time to assemble them. This video from Epicurious helped us think about different ingredients and methods for assembly:

Each student chose from all of the different components, including the rice and beans, roasted veggies, pulled chicken, roasted potatoes, and turkey sausage, cheese, sour cream, salsas, lettuce, and avocado. A burrito truly is artistic expression through food, and the products were beautiful and largely delicious!

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