Knife Skills: Pinch and Claw

Chad Ward, author of An Edge in the Kitchen, a book on knife sharpening and such has helpful video on a basic technique of knife skills. 

There are a few other knife grips and techniques to cover in other posts, but most of the chopping done for cooking, Chinese cooking especially, this is how it's done. The technique is the same for the cleaver-style Chinese chef's knife as well. 

Watch Martin Yan carefully in this video. You'll notice he does the same Pinch grip. But he tends  to move much faster. He's chatty for a while, but he gets there.

The pinch grip is about control and precision. It's usually a slow process for a home cook to pick up get as fast and precise as these videos. Home cook's simply don't prepare enough food to develop the skill quickly. That's OK. Stick with it and it will come. The benefits are better looking food that cooks properly, as well as efficiency with the tools and less waste. 

I want to compare how classic French technique uses this skill with how a home cook can use a variation that's particularly helpful for Chinese cooking. 

The Julienne cut.

In French technique and fine dining, the julienne cut is much like an even match stick, something also referenced frequently in cutting meat and vegetables for the wok. 

The French square off the section of carrot. The sides should be saved in a freezer bag for stock, don't waste them. Or snack on them. 

Make even perpendicular cuts through the block to form even planks. As you get close to the other side, it can be hard to hold. Lightly pinch the whole block of cut and uncut carrot together and make the last few cuts.

Stack the planks together horizontally and cut through evenly again as before.

These are ready to use as julienne carrots. If you want to go one step further, you could cut across your sticks into an even cube the french call Brunoise. I want a piece of carrot similar in size to a grain of cooked long grain rice. Make those cuts, a sort of stubby julienne. There will be a little extra most likely to trim off the last section. Again, those are saved in your freezer bag for stock.

A simpler technique but not as exact is to cut the carrot on the diagonal. Shingle the slices together. They should be mostly shingled from your cutting process. Shingling the carrots gives the efficiency of the stacked cut, but in a line that is more stable all the way to the last cut on a thin carrot or two.

Chop the shingled carrots again for match sticks. With my skills, its not as precise as the french technique, but much much faster.

This works for most vegetables you want in this shape. The primary exception is onion. That's a topic for another time.

A final few slices for rice grain size pieces. It's not as precise, but if I need higher precision cuts for a formal occasion, I know how to do that too.

And here's the carrot in some fried rice. 

Chinese Steamed Fish

This is a great dish of simple, elegant, outstanding flavors.

If you haven't had a fish steamed in the Chinese style you should definitely order one at a restaurant. Sadly in my experience, they're usually on the menu reserved for the Asians or in a special section of authentic dishes, and then in a dinner for 4-6 at that. It deserves to be readily available on the menu.

Jaden Hair of the Steamy Kitchen Blog has already written an entertaining recipe for steamed fish that really works. She takes a few extra steps that keep the flavors bright and up front.  Of note are two batches of aromatics and two batches of seasoning. One set of aromatics and seasoning is used at the start, then discarded when the cooking is done. Then the fish is hit with a batch of fresh seasonings just before serving.

Recipe link one more time just to be clear:
Steamed Fish of the Steamy Kitchen Blog

The bamboo steamers are usually too small to hold a fish of any common size. You could cut it up, but part of the enjoyment of this dish is the drama of a cooked whole fish.  A 12" or larger steamer is useful here, but you can adapt a wok to the job. I used a 2 tier 30cm steamer, two filets in each layer.

Over your boiling water, lay bamboo, wood or steel chopsticks in a tic-tac-toe pattern in the wok.

Set a heat proof plate on top of the chopsticks. Glass, stoneware, ceramic will all work fine for this. Be careful not to jostle the wok while steaming this way as the set up tilts easily.

Cover with the lid and start timing it.

Don't use plastic or melamine chopsticks as they'll soften under the heat. The bamboo chopsticks may well warp after a few uses too.

If you're not near a vendor of whole fish in a size or variety that works for you, fillets or frozen pieces work just fine.

We enjoyed some tilapia fillets this way tonight.

Not everyone in my family enjoys cilantro so I omitted that aromatic.  Even without the cilantro, you really should try this dish.