Cooking is my passion. I am fortunate that this passion often overlaps my career in nutrition as we work to build healthy recipes, test cooking techniques, and write curricula that helps everyday cooks make healthy food for their family. As with any passion, you should sharpen your knives from time to time.
The way I do this is to attend cooking classes. I have had the opportunity to train at Le Cordon Bleu, Culinary Institute of America, and most recently, at the Institute for Culinary Education. My latest class was four days of intensive training in cooking skills. The class included traditional French techniques that are centuries old and are still used as building blocks for many cuisines of the world. This four-blog series will include one technique from each day that I believe may help you as a home cook. Cook along with me as we explore fine cooking techniques.
Day 4
The fourth class in this four-class series included handling shellfish, fish stocks, shucking oysters, fish food safety, sauces for seafood, and making fruit sauces. The technique I would like to share is actually one that was taught and demonstrated throughout the four days at the Institute of Culinary Education, and that is using a board scraper.
This simple, inexpensive tool will serve you well as you prep vegetables for recipes, make salad, and a hundred other kitchen tasks. Every class, a board scraper was part of our station so I used it frequently. This is something I had not used as part of my usual cooking routine. I found it very helpful in moving cut product from my cutting board to my bowl or into a pot or pan. You can move so much more vegetable or fruit at one time than you can with your knife. It helps you keep your cutting board uncluttered so you can work more efficiently. You can find a board scraper at any department store or kitchen store. You can even get a really inexpensive plastic one that works great too.
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