Fresh is best! I strongly feel using fresh ingredients can completely transform the flavor in your food, however using fresh can be scary at first. Fresh garlic specifically intimidates people, but I want to encourage people to try it at least once. The flavor you get from fresh garlic, can’t compare to dried garlic power or garlic salt.
A typical bulb (or head) of garlic has about 10-20 cloves, but how do you get to them? Cup your hand around the garlic bulb, and with the biggest part toward the bottom, smash the bulb onto a cutting board. This will loosen the bulb, opening it slightly, allowing you to remove individual cloves as needed to incorporate into your meals. If it doesn’t open up enough, just gently pull open the top of the bulb.
The individual cloves will still have a ‘wrapper’ around it that needs to be removed. You can smash the clove on a cutting board, using the back of a knife and your palm to easily remove the 'wrapper.' Keep in mind the pressure you use to smash the clove, if it is important the clove stays whole.
Once out of it's 'wrapper', I also like to trim each of the edges of the clove before mincing. If you don’t like to use a knife for mincing garlic, there are tons of garlic presses out there, but I tend to think those just make a little more work because they can be hard to clean.
Better Bonus Tip: Spice up your favorite sandwich or hamburger with a simple garlic aioli by adding minced garlic and a little lemon juice to your favorite mayonnaise.
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When I first starting cooking a lot, I used to hate cutting onions. Now they are one of my favorite things to prep (I know I am a dork). The key is a good sharp knife and a good technique. My favorite type of knife for prepping veggies is a santoku, which are pretty easy to find in all different price ranges. I also have a knife sharpening steel that I try to use on my knife before each use to keep the blade from dulling quickly.
Better Bonus Tip: Bass Pro Shop's hunting department will sharpen your knives for free. To test if your knife needs sharpened, try cutting through a tomato - if you don’t get a nice clean cut easily, time to get professionally sharpened.
Here is the technique I use:
Prior to cutting the onion, you need to think about what you are doing with it and what size you want your pieces to be. If you are going for thin rounds of onion (for hamburgers or onion rings) cut down the middle towards one end, leaving the other root edge intact. You will need to cut a tiny sliver in the outer layer to allow for peeling back the outer skin. To cut the onion rings, grab the knife with your dominant hand and make up and down movements along the onion, moving closer to the root edge with each slice.
If you are wanting onion slices (for fajitas) or chopped/minced onion, you will need to cut the onion through the root edge leaving two pieces.
Next, cut off one of the root edges on each half of the onion, leaving the other root edge intact. You should now have two individual pieces, both with a flat edge that can easily lay on the cutting board. At this point you should also be able to pull back the outer layer of the onion.
Now you need to decide to you want thin slices or small chopped pieces.
To get thin slices, start on the edge opposite the root. Place your non-dominant set of fingers on the top of the onion, curling your finger tips under so your knuckles are predominately on top and closest to where the knife will be. Grab the knife with your dominant hand. Keep your tip of the knife on the edge of your cutting board and continue to make up and down movements along the onion, moving closer to the root edge with each slice.
To get perfectly uniform minced or chopped pieces, use your knife to slice multiple vertical slices along the onion making sure you don’t go all the way through the onion's root edge (this will keep the onion in one piece). You do, however want to go all the way from the top to the bottom.
Next, use your knife to make horizontal slices into the onion, again making sure to not go all the way through the onion.
Last step is making the small chopped pieces. Repeat the process above, moving the knife up and down, closer to the root edge with each slice, while trying to keep the tip of the knife on the edge of the cutting board. Once you are close to the root edge, you should have a pile of chopped onion, all with a pretty consistent size and shape.
It might sound complicated, but I have confidence in you! Harder to explain step by step in a written format than it is to actually do :).
~Ashley
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