Now that you’ve picked up your fresh, locally-sourced foods from Galveston’s Own Farmers Market and chosen a new recipe to try, what do you do when your recipe uses unfamiliar cooking methods, like “searing” and “cutting paysanne”? Not to worry, even the world’s most experienced chefs had a point in their lives when they were unsure of how to braise and blanch.

Cooking methods like flambe’, where you literally set your food on fire, can be a bit scary and not very practical for every day use, so it was decided that demonstrating more commonly used methods would be most helpful for anyone just starting out on their cooking journey. The video below shows how to perform the following 5 cooking and cutting techniques: Chop an Onion, Oven-roast Vegetables, Saute’ Vegetables, Sear a Roast, and Cut Paysanne. Step-by-step instructions for each technique are also listed below and each set of instructions has notes with various tips included.

Chopping an Onion

**Note - Be sure to use a sharp knife. Sharp knives require less force from your hand to cut through vegetables, which reduces the risk of your hand slipping down the knife. A yellow onion was used for this demonstration

Cut the onion in half from root to stem, then cut the stem end off of the onion.
Peel off the thin, papery, outer layer of the onion and place one half of the onion cut-side down on the cutting board.
Hold onion with fingers in a claw like fashion to avoid cutting your fingers and hold the knife in your other hand.
With the tip of the knife towards the root, make even cuts down through the onion, but without cutting all the way through the root end.
Turn the onion and make slices the opposite direction, from one side to the other.
Your onion is now chopped or diced.

Oven-roasting Root Vegetables

**Note- Many different vegetables can be roasted in the oven; you just need to adjust the cooking time and temperature based on the vegetable. Harder vegetables like butternut squash will take longer to cook than softer vegetables like zucchini or eggplant. Yukon Gold new potatoes were used for this demonstration.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cover baking sheet in tin foil and cut your vegetables into smaller pieces to reduce the amount of time it takes them to cook. (If using small potatoes, also called “new potatoes”, you can cut them in half. If using carrots, you can cut them into pieces about 2 inches in length and then cut them in half.)
Place cut vegetables onto the foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil to keep them from sticking to the foil. Sprinkle with seasoning of your choice. I use salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley flakes.
Stir the vegetables to cover them evenly with oil and seasonings, then make sure they are in a single layer on the pan. Place into the pre-heated oven to cook for 20 minutes.
Carefully remove the pan from the oven using a potholder or oven mitt and use a spatula or spoon to turn the vegetables over.
Place the pan of vegetables back in the oven for another 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove them from the oven.
Your vegetables are now ready. If you like the vegetables to be crispier, you can cook them a few minutes longer.

Sautéing Vegetables

**Note- Many softer vegetables or leafy vegetables can be cooked using this method. The vegetables you choose will determine how long they need to cook before they are tender, but generally, most vegetables will take less than 10 minutes. I used yellow squash and zucchini for this demonstration.

Thoroughly wash, then slice or chop your vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
Place a skillet on the stove burner and heat on medium heat. Once pan is warmed, add enough olive oil to the pan to coat the bottom.
Add your vegetables to the skillet and stir to coat them in oil. Add seasoning of your choice and stir. I typically use salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Stir occasionally while the vegetables are cooking.
Once the vegetables are tender and slightly browned, they are finished.

Searing A Roast

**Note- Keep in mind that searing is not intended to actually cook the roast. It is a method of cooking that is used to help keep the roast moist and prepares it to be cooked by braising/pot roasting/slow cooking it. A boneless beef shoulder roast was used for this demonstration.

Season the roast with salt and pepper or any other seasonings you prefer.
Place a heavy skillet or cast iron pan on the stove burner on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add 1-2 tablespoons of oil to the pan.
Add your roast to the pan and let it sear on one side for about 5-7 minutes or until that side has a caramelized, brown crust on it.
Use tongs to turn the roast over to the other side and sear it for 5-7 minutes or until that same brown crust has formed.
The roast is now ready to be transferred to a slow-cooker or dutch oven type pan for pot roasting.

Cutting Paysanne

**Note- Cutting paysanne means to cut vegetables into small, thin squares about the size of a Scrabble tile. Harder vegetables like potatoes and carrots are popular choices for this cutting technique. The small, thin size can greatly decrease cooking time if you’re adding them to a soup, and radishes cut paysanne make a nice addition to salads.

Watching the video is highly recommended since the instructions might make this cut seem difficult, but it is much easier than the instructions sound. The best way to picture it is to imagine that you are cutting a vegetable into the same shape as a stick of butter, but smaller, with ½ in sides. Then when you slice to make the paysanne, think of it as cutting thin pats of butter from your miniature butter stick. A daikon radish was used for this demonstration.

Thoroughly wash, then peel the vegetable you plan to use. Place the vegetable on a cutting board, and trim off the short ends of the vegetable so that they are flat.
Begin cutting lengthwise to “square-off” the first side of the vegetable. (The goal is to end up with all sides of the vegetable being flat.) Cut the other round sides off so that you have the same shape as a stick of butter.
If you used a carrot the sides of this piece should already be about ½ in wide now and you are ready for step 5.
If you used a potato or other large vegetable, this one large piece can now be cut lengthwise to form smaller sticks with ½ in wide sides.
Cutting from the square end, you can now slice the sticks into little squares that are about 1/8th of an inch thick. Think thin, but not paper thin or they might completely dissolve when cooked.