Vegetable Cuts That Compliments And Adds Beauty To A Dish!

By Author: samantha kirk
Total Articles: 62
Comment this article

When we start cooking a dish, what are the important points that we take in to account? Our first priority is making the dish taste good, not make it too spicy, salty, and sweet or bitter. Our next worry will be in to the texture of the food. It should not be too dry, too crumbly, too sloppy and too runny. And then presentation by adding compliments to make the food look attractive. What we don’t give importance is to the cuts of our ingredients. Why do you think Japanese food looks so vibrant, colorful and fresh? It is because of the importance they give to the cuts of vegetables. Many of us make the mistake by cutting our vegetables randomly. We might spend a lot of time in making the dish delicious and presentable, but the attraction of the dish will be lost if one piece is cut differently than the other. A cut of a vegetable should compliment the dish and it could be made to look like a restaurant-style dish in the end!

Macedoine cut is a diced cube which is typically used for vegetables like carrot, onion and turnip. They are of the miniature square cube shapes. This type of cut is commonly used for sautéing vegetables ...
... or for garnishing. Bruniose is another cut that is similar to th macedoine cut. The only difference is that, the square cubes are larger than the previous cut. This type of cut is again used commonly for vegetables like carrot, onion, turnip and celery. This cut used for salads commonly as they give a crunchy texture to the dish when completed. The next cut is called Matignon. It can be defined as roughly but artistically cut vegetables. This cut is usually used for vegetables which are used for adding flavors when large chunks of meat are cooked. These aromatic vegetables help keep the meat together when it is roasted. Vegetables like onion, carrot and celery can be cut like this. Mirepoix is roughly cut vegetables. They are not used directly in a dish but used as a base for sauces to enhance the flavor of meat. Usually, vegetables cut like this are tossed in to boiling water and are slowly cooked to make a sauce which will be a key ingredient to the main dish. Brunoise is a cut that is again shaped like a cube, but the vegetables are finely chopped. The vegetables almost appear to be minced. This type of cut is often used to garnish. The most common vegetables cut in this shape are carrot, onion, turnip and celery.

Chiffonade is a cut commonly used for spinach and other herbs. They are shredded in to finely thin slices. They are used commonly for garnishing soups or as a base for main dishes. Jardinière can be defined as a very thick version of slices. They are rectangular in shape and this type of cut is used for a dish where vegetables are the key ingredients. Juliennes are the most common type of cut. They look like match sticks. They are thinly cut vegetables. We can say that it’s the opposite of Jardinière. A cut that follow the shape of the vegetable can be called the payasanne. Unlike the other cuts in which the cuts have a definite shape to it, the payasanne is cut according to the shape of the vegetable. The cuts are thin and not too thick. There are a lot more cuts which can be learnt through your internet connection like the ATT Uverse Internet!

Thus the cut of the vegetable should compliment the dish that it is being used for. For example, thinly cut vegetables like julienne cannot be used for salads where the flavors has to be bold and crunchy, otherwise the salad will become soggy and boring with vegetables cut so thin that it is hard to differentiate from one flavor to the other.

Samantha Kirk is a freelance writer. She loves astrology and learns palmistry at home, and enjoys reading about the subject on her ATT Uverse Internet! She strongly believes in sun signs and often debates with people saying that people’s characteristics are influenced by their respective sun signs!