Category: Cooking Tips

Using Your Knife   Chopping… it can be a big chore and a deterrent from cooking at home.  If you find yourself reaching for the frozen, or pre cut produce at the store you are not alone. But you can enjoy a much fresher, tastier meal by putting a little work into your knife skills for preparing ingredients. You will also save some money while you’re at it by buying whole, fresh ingredients. Sharpness The knife needs to be sharp. Though it can be intimidating to use a very sharp knife, its actually safer for you. A dull knife will easily slip off of the surfaces of the items you are cutting and cause an accident, but a properly sharpened knife will easily slice through the desired object… not your finger.  You can use an at home knife sharpener, or take it in to your local knife shop and have it professionally sharped, then maintain the blade at home. Knife Grip How you hold the knife. You will want to have your forefinger and thumb pinching the top of the blade at the base, with the handle resting in your palm. This will give you greater control of your knife. When slicing, move your knife arm in a downward and forward motion, this will allow the knife do the work for you. Hand Placement How you hold the item you are cutting is also important. You will want to use the “claw grip”.  Keep your fingertips tucked in towards your palm, which leaves your knuckles protruding out. The knuckles protect your fingers as they act as a barrier against the blade. With the claw grip, you aren’t really holding onto the item you are cutting, you’re just pressing down on it with pressure from your fingertips. This keeps it secured to the cutting board, and allows you to easily move your hand as you chop or slice.             With a little practice and patience, you can learn and implement these knife skills and immensely improve the quality of your cooking.   Subscribe to our newsletter and receive all of Salar's new cooking tips.

Scrumptious Salmon Salmon, it’s delicious! Yet it can be tricky to cook, ending up in a not so delicious result. Salmon can be a lot less forgiving that other items you may cook. It needs to be fresh, or stored properly before you cook it to ensure best results. Any easy fresh test you can use, is push your finger onto the surface of the salmon, if the flesh pops back quickly to its original form, you’ve got fresh salmon. If the indent from your finger lingers too long, or doesn’t dissipate at all, you may want to think twice about even cooking the salmon. Now that you’ve determined your salmon is fresh and ready to cook, here are a few tricks to help you get the delicious results you want. Set your oven to 500 degrees Celsius, and get an oven safe pan ready. If your fillet has skin, you will want to score it. Take your knife and cut lines approximately 1 cm apart along the skin of your salmon. This prevents the skin from shrinking, curling up, and helps ensure even cooking. Get your pan really, really hot! Add a generous amount of olive oil or clarified butter (ghee). The salmon should really sizzle when you put it down. If you wanted to take your skin off, you could place the salmon skin side down in your hot pan for about 10 seconds, and then take it out and the skin will peel right off. Season your salmon with salt & pepper, add slices of fresh lemon on the side without skin. Place your salmon in the pan, skin side down, and let it sear for about 1 minute. Now take the pan from the burner, and place it in the oven to finish for about 5 -6 minutes. The amount of time in the oven depends on the size and thickness of your fillet Your salmon is ready to serve. You will want to place the salmon skin side up on the plate, as it will have a beautiful crisp finish. Squeeze some fresh lemon on the fillet, add a fresh sprig of dill and enjoy. Subscribe to our newsletter and receive all of Salar's new cooking tips.