Learn to make a bump from carrots, chrysanthemum from onions, flowers from radishes and apples. And carving for beginners will help this, which everyone can master. Carving in translation from English means "cutting". In cooking, it is the art of artistic cutting of fruits and vegetables. This interesting type of creativity originated in Southeast Asia. Japanese chefs lined the pottery in which the food was served with leaves. They understood that the beautiful arrangement of the leaves gives the dish additional attractiveness and began to artistically cut fruits and vegetables.
Later, carving penetrated into Europe, but at first it was not very popular here. However, with the advent of restaurants, this art has become in high demand.
Carving knives
There are kits for artistic cutting for every budget and taste. But carving for beginners can be carried out without the use of special equipment for this type of creativity.
If desired, sets for cutting wood, for linocuts can be turned into tools for carving. The most important knife used in this type of art is Thai. This is what he is.
Using such a tool, you can perform various elements of carving from vegetables and fruits. Therefore, if you have such a narrow knife with a thin blade, you can use only one at the initial stage. As you master this technique, you can purchase additional equipment to create more complex and interesting compositions. For these, the following types of knives are used:
- Thai - the group of these tools also includes sickle-shaped bent and wedge-shaped knives.
- Carbovye - these are V-shaped tools, as well as oval and round.
- Flute. Used to remove thin strips from fruits and vegetables. Flutes are called decorative grooves on such instruments.
- Noisettes are notch knives that are used to carve shapes out of fruit. They have different shapes (diamond, round, clouds, etc.).
- Engraving and other knives for carving with replaceable blades are used if you need to remove the zest, remove the core; peel vegetables, etc.
- Culinary devices of the style of our domestic cookie molds.
Here is a sickle knife, which is used like the Thai one, but cut into larger parts with it.
With a flute knife, it is easy to groove vegetables and fruits. First, longitudinal stripes are made with this tool, and then, for example, a lemon is cut across into circles and shapes in the shape of a flower are obtained.
Carb knives for carving come in different diameters. They can be V-shaped and U-shaped. The first ones are easy to cut out the leaves, make engravings on the fruit bark.
U-shaped knives are used to create ornaments with rounded cuts.
Also, the carving tools include small scissors. With the help of them, flat straight, oblique or other cuts are made along the edge of the fruit.
Another interesting carving tool is the double-sided noisette spoon. It is used for removing pulp from large fruits, cutting out balls, hemispheres.
The noisette spoon is often used in French cuisine. Chefs use this tool to cut balls of raw potatoes and then deep-fry them.
If you have not yet acquired such tools, you can replace them by carving from vegetables and fruits, with a scalpel, or a fruit knife.
Vegetable decoration - radish flower
The dish looks much more attractive if such an edible flower flaunts in its center or on the side. Even those who have never done this before will be able to cut it out of radishes. For this decoration, you can use ordinary small scissors and a sharp knife. Besides these, you will need radishes. The root crop should be even, rounded. In the photo it is red, but now those who grow this vegetable in their personal plots know that varieties of radishes of various colors have been bred. Therefore, the lily from this vegetable can be red, pink, yellow and even purple.
Cut off the top of the radish and mentally draw a 5-sided here. Now lead from this place down with a knife (but not all the way) so that the first petal is indicated. Thus, complete all five.
To make the next, inner row of petals clearly visible, cut the layer of pulp in a circle, which is located between the first and second row of petals. Now take scissors and process all 5 petals of the outer row with them, sharpening the top of each, as shown in the photo.
Next, complete the second row of petals, which is staggered relative to the first. Then - the third and subsequent inner rows.
This is how you can make vegetable decorations for salad. Try not only carving a lily, but also a radish rose.
To make it look like this multi-petal, wash the root crop, cut off the green part from it. On the opposite side, make several parallel cuts in the center and then on the side of the root vegetable. Take another radish, chop it into thin slices. Insert them into the slots of the first root vegetable. You've got such an elegant flower. Find out what other salad dressings you can quickly cut out.
How to make a lily from an onion?
You will get such a wonderful chrysanthemum in just 5 minutes of work.
For this carving you will need:
- large onion;
- sharp knife;
- a bowl of water;
- beet juice.
Peel the onion, cut off the top - 5 mm. Next, put the knife across, cut the onion from top to bottom almost in half, but not reaching the bottom about 8 mm.
Now make a cut perpendicular to this, and then a few more. The more there are, the fluffier the flower will turn out.
Pour room temperature water into a bowl, dip the workpiece into it, let the onion soak in the liquid for 40–120 minutes. During this time, the petals will "bloom", and you will get a beautiful flower using the carving technique.
The time for soaking the onions in water depends on the variety. Some will begin to "bloom" after 40 minutes, while for others, the waiting time for this process will be longer. Now moisten the blank in beetroot juice, and you will have such a wonderful flower.
You can turn the chrysanthemum over, soak only the tips of its petals in the juice, or place the flower completely in the food coloring liquid.
How to cut a delicious carrot decoration?
Don't these buds look bright, realistic and festive? You can make them using carving knives, or by taking a regular kitchen knife with a narrow blade.
Take a root vegetable that is at least 3 centimeters in diameter. Cut upwards so that the carrots are 8–12 cm long. Remove the outermost flesh at the wide end of the root so that a square tail remains.
Now process the workpiece from the same side along the turn, rounding its shoulders on all sides. Then visually divide this top of the carrot into 6 parts, which will turn into the scales of a hand-made cone.
Deepening the tip of the knife by 2-3 mm, mark these scales. To prepare a pad for the second row of scales, cut out the carrot pulp in a circle just below the first. In the same way, but in a checkerboard pattern, complete the second row of scales. Under it, remove some carrot pulp along the cone again to make a third row of scales, which will be staggered in relation to the second.
In the same technique, you can make a few more buds to create a beautiful vegetable bouquet later.
To make the carrots harden and the scales open, place them in ice water for 15 minutes.
If you made this salad dressing, then place the buds in the center of the dish or place them along the edge of it. If you want to create such an amazing bouquet as in the photo, then string the processed carrots on a wire wrapped in a green floral ribbon. You stick the other end of the wire into the pumpkin, the pulp of which is also carved. It remains to cut the petals from the cucumber, decorate the composition with dill, after which you can put it in the most prominent place in the house or in the center of the festive table.
If you have carving knives, then use the V to make pointed scales. A U-shape will help create rounded ones.
Today you learned how vegetable carving is done. Follow the publications and soon you will learn how to artistically cut fruits that will turn into a firebird, a basket, and become colorful flowers.
In the meantime, check out the video, from which you will learn how to cut a rose from carrots, and see what you can turn ordinary vegetables into with the help of carving:
