Stay sharp: Know your knives

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

To properly grip a knife, make a circle with thumb and index finger. Open them and use them to grip the knife on either side of the spot where blade meets handle, curving the other fingers around the handle. Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Chef Grant Sato and several of his senior students led a group of home cooks through a pleasant Saturday morning of lectures and lab work ("Look, chef! I cut an onion!").

Sato said most home cooks don't know much about knives and are a little afraid of them, which often results in working harder than you need to. And, though his knife kit is jam-packed, he says it's perfectly possible to use a single knife for every kitchen chore, once you acquire the right knife for your size and strength, and learn how to wield it.

Realistically, most home cooks need only three or four knives: a chef's knife, a paring knife, a bread knife with a serrated edge and possibly a cleaver. And — very important — something which which to sharpen them.

"Don't let a salesman talk you into a whole set if you don't really want or need it," he said.

Grant said a chef can always tell a home cook by the way we hold a knife: with the index finger running along the spine (the top or blunt edge of the knife). Instead, bend the thumb and place on one side, right about where the heel meets the handle. Curl the forefinger down on the opposite side and curve the other fingers around the handle. Choke up on the knife for maximum control but don't grip too tightly.

Another giveaway: the guiding hand (the one without the knife). Rather than steadying the food to be cut with spread-out, flat fingers, the fingers should be curved inward, with the tips and pads gripping and steadying the food and the knuckle of the index finger up against the blade as you slice. The knuckle keeps the cutting edge safely away from the tips of the fingers and helps guide the knife to the proper cutting interval. (Sorry, but long nails gotta go if you want to do this right.)

Another professional tip: Assuming you are using a Western-style knife or Chinese cleaver (Japanese knives are another story), adopt a sliding, rocking motion in slicing and chopping. The blade comes down tip-end first, slides away from you through the food while the heel (the back end) makes contact with the cutting board and pushes through. The fingers of the guiding hand may rest lightly on the spine if they aren't needed to steady the food.

To use your knives like a pro, learn a few key techniques

Four key cuts

If you can handle squares (dice) and strips (julienne), you pretty much have the fruit and vegetable world beaten. Both begin the same way.

1. Wash vegetable. Slice off rounded ends and edges (the cut-away material is saved for the soup pot or other use). Your goal is to form a rectangle; cut rectangle to 2 1/2 to three inches long.
2. For square cuts (large, medium or small dice or the tiny dice called brunoise), slice squared-off vegetable down its length at appropriate intervals. Cut these pieces into strips at appropriate intervals. Turn pieces perpendicular to the last cut and chop across at appropriate intervals to form small squares. The range here is from 3/4-inch square for large dice to 1/8-inch for brunoise.
3. For french fries (thick strips), batonnets (less thick) or julienne (very thin strips), slice squared-off vegetable lengthwise at appropriate intervals. Then slice pieces down their length again at appropriate intervals. A french fry is 1/3-inch square in cross-section; a batonnet is 1/4-inch square; julienne strips are 1/8-square.

Chiffonade is a fast and easy cut for leafy greens. Wash greens, stack five or six high; roll lengthwise as for jelly roll, then cut across roll to form strips of desired length.

Bias cut is commonly used for vegetables in Asian cooking, especially for stir-fries. The food is trimmed, then sliced with the knife held at a diagonal angle at appropriate intervals, creating a wide, flat, thin slice so as to expose the maximum amount of surface to the heat for quick cooking.

Onion magic

Trim away the onion's stem end, peel back parchment, slice onion through its length and breadth while it's still held together by the root, then slice crosswise to form a beautiful, easy dice.

• Trim off top (the end where the leaves were). Leave the root end intact.
• Halve onion lengthwise.
• Place an onion half cut side down on cutting board. Peel back parchment toward and over root end, leaving parchment attached.
• Steady onion with guiding hand on top. Cut into the onion crosswise, holding the blade horizontal, working from the trimmed end toward the root, rocking the knife to force it through the onion. Stop 1/2 inch from root.
• Now use the tip of the knife to slice downward through the onion lengthwise at 1/2-inch intervals, again allowing the root end to keep the onion from falling apart.
• Finally, turn the onion so that the root end is toward you, hold it together with the guiding hand and make a series of crosswise slices, starting at the cut tip and working toward the root. The onion becomes beautiful 1/2-inch dice.

Keep them sharp

Stone: Sharpening stone, used properly, grinds blade to correct angle. Home stones can be as small as a deck of playing cards or as much as 10 inches by two or three inches. Some are rough on one side, fine on the other. Use rough first. Average home cook should use stone every couple of weeks.

Steel: Realigns minute ripples in blade edge. Use it every time you use knife.

Using stone and steel:

• Place stone on folded towel on flat surface. Stone may be placed horizontally or vertically.
• Drizzle some water on the stone for smoother grinding (not oil, which clogs the stone's pores and promotes bacterial contamination).
• Hold knife in dominant hand and place blade at 45-degree angle to stone, resting the tip on the bottom right corner of the stone. Place the fingers of the guiding hand lightly on top of the knife. Push with dominant hand and use the other to guide the knife in a diagonal line from the bottom right to the top left of the stone; repeat several times. Do not allow knife to lose contact with stone as it moves. Press lightly but firmly, so knife doesn't skitter across stone. Sharpen entire edge from tip to heel. Proper sharpening produces a singing tone that rises in pitch.
• Turn knife to other side and repeat from bottom left to top right.
• Use the steel. Hold steel upright or cross-wise in front of you. Place tip of knife at 45 degree angle to top of steel. Sweep down or across from heel to tip on one side of steel, then opposite side. Again, a sweet singing sound should result. Be sure to wipe away any blade shavings before using knife.

Five kinds of knives

Boning: Two styles — straight edge, thicker gauge and stiff, for larger game; thin, curved, flexible and long-bladed for fish, chicken and smaller carcasses.

Paring: The other must-have, four- to six-inch miniature all-purpose knife for peeling, paring, coring and other small jobs.

Serrated: Wavy-edged, long-bladed knife primarily for slicing breads and baked goods, sometimes for roast meats. Cannot be sharpened.

Chinese cleaver: The knife many Asian chefs use exclusively; large, squarish with slightly curved edge, medium to heavy blade, can slice vegetables or cut through bones. One-piece, carbon-steel versions are very inexpensive in Chinatown. Carbon steel, used for centuries, requires frequent sharpening and can rust and discolor, but is more easily sharpened to a fine edge than more modern stainless blades. Keep it clean, dry and lightly oiled.