If you want to get really, really thin slices of veggies, you want to use a mandoline slicer or a handheld slicer. Now these can be very dangerous. So this is how we use them safely.
Technique Summary
Take a vegetable, like a cucumber, for your handheld slicer and just take it and run it down. See how my fingers are up here? And the cucumber pieces down here, that's how we do it. And when it gets close to your fingers, stop. Now, they have this little tool that you can use to put on top of something. This little tool will grab it right here and slice it. And that way you can get a little closer on your cucumber. This is a mandoline slicer and it will give you different degrees of slicing. And see, my fingers are not anywhere near the blade. Then you might have a vegetable that has an odd shape. So to get it onto your mandoline, you just have to trim it. Take it off the tops and then you take your fennel and go right onto your mandoline.
Chef's Checkpoints
- And when it gets close to your fingers, stop. Don't use it anymore. We can cut the rest of it into chunks and use it for other things.
- Now, if you have any nerve-wracking experience with slicing, you use the glove because the blade cannot get to your hand.
- And don't get too close.