Knife Skills Class Reviewed

Last Saturday was the perfect day for a knife skills class in Northern California. Eleven people arrived at the illustrious house of Dr. Biggles where they sat down promptly in the kitchy outdoor area and learned serious and silly things about knives big and small. I convinced them all that peeling a raw pepper is worth it and keeping their own knives sharp is not impossible. Some came as far as LA and all left ready to supreme an orange.

Want to know what the next class will be about? Read all about this class and ones to come on KQED's Bay Area Bites.

Comments

[maura]

Town Hall

[Rorie]

Such fun!

[Maria]

Hi Shuna,
Still waiting for you to offer another egg class. It's one of the most amazing ingredients and I'd really like to learn more about it! I'd offer my kitchen, but don't think a lot of people would fit in it and my oven really needs a good cleaning.

[julie]

Hi Shuna,

As I'm too geographically far away to attend your classes, I have a quick, basic question regarding knives: For the average home kitchen cook, what brand(s) of knives would you recommend? I mean, most of us home cooks dream of big name fancy knives, but there must be those out there in average person's retail world that are more suitable than others. At the moment, I have odd knives from all sorts of brands, but would like to buy one good complete set...
Thanks for any advice...
Julie

[Melissa]

Your class would have been worth the jet lag.....darn it!

[shuna fish lydon]

Maria---

in due time I will get my sea legs back and do another custard class. those were indeed fun and delicious.

Julie-- I am not a big fan of buying knife sets. Mostly because very few homecooks need or use all those knives. Also the sets tend to be German knives which are very hard to keep sharp.

Silly as it may sound I like the one Cutco steak knife I have and they are guaranteed for life. It's very sharp as a serrated and you can do a few non serrated things with them too.

You may also appreciate the Global knives. But if you get one be sure to get the "steel" that goes with them-- they should not be honed on a regular steel.

Think about all the things you use a knife for and buy 1-3 knives for those jobs. Use Google to find out where they can get sharpened and have that done 2-4 times a year depending on use.

Hope this helps!

[julie]

Thanks so much!!! It does help!!!!

[Kim]

I just posted a longer comment on the KQED blog about how this class has changed our cooking.

We have just one more question - could you describe in your blog how to peel tomatoes?

[shuna fish lydon]

HOW TO PEEL A TOMATO

Bring a pot of cold water up to boil
Make a small X on the bottom of the tomato-- do not cut into the tomato too much
Core the top of the tomato out
Fill a bowl with ice and cold water
Have slotted spoon
When water comes to boil drop tomato in and count to 8
Lift tomato out and drop in ice water
For cherry tomatoes count to five
Tomato skin should peel away from the X easily, if not drop it in boiling water a bit more

Kim-- your comment on KQED was fantastic! thank you so very very much! You really made that class happen, and it was a wonderful excuse to begin teaching again. I thought you all were hungry learners and that is the best kind.