Chosen to Surrender: Onions have Layers

I could NEVER figure out how to dice onions.

How to get that nice, uniform dice.

Actually, what I did know how to do is put an onion cut in half or quarters in a food processor and "pulse" it to a fine mush. ;)

Then my handy dandy hubby showed me how. Ah, the perks of being married to a chef. Actually he showed me this when he was my boss. Heehee.

And for those of you that are already amazing cooks and have perfect knife skills, just move along to the next blog. This is for those of us who are tired of substituting onion mush for diced onions. ;)

First, cut ends off onion and then cut in half. With flat side down, cut slits into onion as shown. And disregard the chippy Barbie polish on my nails. Whatev.

Be careful not to cut the slits all the way back, you want the onion to all still be attached at the back. In fact, a cool trick is to leave one of the ends on the onion, the root end works best (the one with the weird little hairs), and that will keep your onion together, almost like a fan.

Then, take your knife and cut into side of onion, parrallel to the cutting board. Start at bottom and make a cut just a little up from the bottom. If you want a 1/4" dice, go about a 1/4" up. Cut almost to the back of the onion, still keeping the back in tact, just like before.

I couldn't take a picture and do this at the same time, but my other hand holds the onion, palm flat, right on the top of the onion, so it doesn't move when you are cutting.

Move up a little more and continue your horizontal cuts. The number of cuts will depend on how big you want your dice and how big your onion is. I usually end up with two or three horizontal cuts.

I know I have man hands.

This is the safest way to hold your product when cutting. Keep the knife against the flat side of your fingers, with your fingertips tucked in, gripping your product.