Julienne a Bell Pepper

When making fajitas, most of the work is in preparing the delicious bed of onions and peppers that go with it. to do this you must julienne (cut into thin spears) both vegetables. Here is a quick video showing the technique.

 Step 1 wash the pepper!

 As seen in the video, cut into the pepper and remove the top of it

 Next cut off the bottom while trying to leave as much of the side as possible!

 

Cut the pepper open down the side to make a long slab of pepper 

 Julienne the pepper to your desired width!

Now check out my steak fajita recipe!

Onion Cutting

First off, it is always funny to make a joke about someone crying when you see them cutting an onion, ...always.

Second, here are some videos about how to cut an onion different ways.

The sound didn't work so you'll have to read. First I point out the root side (brown side) and the flower side of the onion. Cut off the flower side and peel back the outermost layer of the onion. cut the Onion is half as shown. To dice the onion, cut toward the root, parallel to the cutting board, next cut toward the root as shown. then cut parallel to the root. With practice at proper spacing you will make nice little cubes of onions, or close enough :)

To Julienne (or cut thin spears) an onion you can use the onion's natural layers to do most of the work for you. prepare the onion as you did in the dicing video. Once you have cut the flower end, cut the root end, peel the onion and cut the half again into a quarter. now make thin cuts up the side of the onion as shown and you have your julienne! Just separate the pieces and you are done! This is great for sandwiches or fajitas!

Spices: an Introduction

Spices are a highly undervalued part of your cooking arsenal. Most people either have

a) an unorganized mess of spices bought here and there for this recipe or that and never used again

B No spices, except maybe a trendy spice rack you found when buying stuff for your apartment

The truth is, there's a reason people say that you should spice up your life! Spices are a cheap way to make your home cooked meals into masterpieces.

If you have a collection of spices going, definitely start experimenting. Cook some chicken in a skillet for dinner and add some spices you think go together. Smell them, read whatever descriptions they provide, taste them on your finger and then take a chance. I learned most of my spicing habits this way and I think it really helps to develop your artistic side of cooking.

Now there is no need to go crazy just yet, if you don't have a lot of spices laying around don't break your bank buying every spice you've never heard of. For those of you who are short on spices here is my list of must haves.  Don't worry about the brand of the product, store brands can be just as flavorful. Some brands provide better containers, McCormick in general has the best grinders you can buy for the price, but over all there is little to no difference between brand names at this level of cooking.

 The Usual Suspects

 Now I personally am not a big fan of salty taste because it is very easy to overpower a great meal with a pinch of salt. However most of us Americans can't live without our salt and if you are going to use salt, this is a great one to start with. You will quickly learn how little you need to use to get a powerful effect. Test it out on some chicken, eggs, popcorn, anything really.

 For those times you want some onion flavor but don't want to cut an onion! Also useful in sauces where you don't want big chucks of onion or on quesedillas.

 This is the one spice to rule them all. I used to use garlic salt as many people do but I found that it was hard to get a good garlic flavor without having an overwhelming salt flavor. Garlic powder is also good for this purpose but garlic pepper is just such a nice blend you can easily add it to anything without worrying about over powering the dish with garlic. Most people know how much pepper to add to something and this blend keeps that balance. Add as much garlic pepper to a dish as you would regular pepper and you are in for a treat!

The following herbs are common in italian cooking (which I love!) and together compose the "Italian seasoning" you will find in the store. While it is perfectly acceptable to buy the "Italian seasoning" bottle, I suggest buying them separately so that if needed you can use them individually.

Thyme 

 Oregano

 Marjoram (I haven't used this by itself yet)

 Rosemary (makes delicious Peasant's bread like at Macaroni Grill)

 Basil

Olive oil cooking oil adds some flavor to your dishes and comes in a nice spray can these days. The nice thing about olive oil is it will teach you the appropriate temperature for your pan as it has a low smoke point and will fill your house with smoke if its too hot. That said, don't bake with it unless you like smokey houses!