Chopping an onion - the easy way with no tears

Preventing the tears

So many people end up with streaming eyes when they chop an onion. There are many ways to stop the tears, perhaps by putting a spoon in your mouth, wearing sunglasses, even a facemask and snorkel.

If you follow my simple method, you should find that you get a lovely pile of chopped onion, without the pain.

This is how you achieve diced or "fine diced" onion.

Tip - Freeze for later

I've also discovered that once diced, you can pop the onion in a freezer bag, flatten out the bag, to try and break the pieces up and pop it laid flat in the freezer. Once frozen, you can then shake the bag and you have "ready diced" onion to use.

At school, my teacher, Mrs Passmore, taught us a different way to chop an onion.

Golden rule - DO NOT CUT OFF THE ROOT.

Start with your onion cut in half, keep the cut side down on the board.  Now peel your onion, slicing it in half first helps you to peel off the outer covering, but keep the cut root on the board.

Make sure the root is left on (if you cut it off the sulphuric acid in the root end will make you cry).

The tear making section is the part of the onion closest to the root.

Hold your knife so that you cut down onto the board at an angle, so that when you get nearly through the onion, you don't cut through the root.

The onion is placed on the board, with the root closest to the knife. 

If you are right-handed, start at the far right when slicing. 

If left-handed start at the far left.

Notice how the knife isn't cutting through the root, it's stopping just above where the root is.

Keep slicing, moving carefully closer each time you slice.

You can use the segment marks to help you.

Continue cutting from right to left (if right-handed) reverse if left-handed, until you've cut through all of the onion.

Now turn the onion 90 degrees, so that you can now slice across, cutting into small dice.

Notice how the root is still attached and the onion is still in one piece.

You can now see that you have one chopped onion.

Carefully dispose of the root into your veg waste, keeping that root away from your eyes.

Do remember not to touch your eyes with your lovely oniony fingers, or you will transfer some of that sulphuric acid and will get tears.

I hope you find this helps when preparing your meals.

Let me know if it works for you.

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Fennel and Lemon Risotto

Fennel and Lemon Risotto is a treat either for lunch or as an accompaniment to dinner.

A Riverford organic vegetable box is a great way to increase the variety of vegetables you eat, stopping you getting into a rut. This week I received 2 bulbs of fennel. 

Now here's the quandary, I don't like aniseed or liquorice, but actually like the flavour of fennel and tarragon when it's very mild. 

So what were my choices? There is the classic fennel and orange salad, Delia's roasted red peppers with fennel (which are lush hot or cold and my husband's favourite) but I didn't have any peppers; a layered potato and fennel gratin or something different!

Jamie Oliver has a great video about fennel, explaining the nutrients too. I love to see buddy just eating the slices raw and chewing the fronds (bubblegum style).

I decided to get creative and make a fennel and lemon risotto and was very pleased with the results. The flavour was very subtle, creamy and was great with some turkey burgers.

I still have another bulb of fennel left to use.

Ingredients (serves 4 as an accompaniment)

1 onion, finely chopped (check out my tutorial on chopping an onion with minimal tears)

1 bulb of fennel

1 tbsp olive oil

25g unsalted butter

1/2 packet risotto rice

1 Knorr chicken stock pot (you could use vegetable stock)

1 large lemon

25g grated parmesan

25g unsalted butter (to add at the end)

salt and pepper

Method

Scrub the lemon under some hot water to remove any wax or product and leave to dry.

Now to prepare the fennel. I trimmed off the top of the fennel, the stalks were a bit tougher. I then cut the fennel in half, then into quarters and remove the core if necessary. I then chopped the fennel into small piece, slicing down the length, then across.

In a small saucepan, pop in the stockpot and 500 ml boiling water. Dissolve the stockpot and then leave over low heat, just keeping it hot. You always add boiling stock to a risotto.

Take a large saucepan, add the olive oil and 25g of butter, melt over medium heat, then add the chopped onion and fennel and fry gently for about 5 minutes until the onion is going translucent.

Add the rice and stir, frying for another minute, the rice should start to squeak. If you haven't made risotto before Gennaro has a great video teaching you the basics.

Start adding the stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring and cooking until the risotto rice is just cooked, top up the stock pan if you need more water. Add the grated zest of the lemon, stir well, then season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and add the parmesan and butter and stir again. Cover and leave for 3 minutes.

Serve and grate over a little more lemon zest.

Let me know if you try this, or have any other great ideas for using fennel. 

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