Cook with us #20 - Knife Skills Epic failure
One thing I learned with this challenge was that my knife skills suck, to put it mildly!
I had moments of glory for sure, but the very next minute failure - perhaps it's this left handedness of mine, can I blame the knife for being designed for right handed chefs - I think not, scissors for sure, but not a knife!
So my sincere apologies to the awesome Cook with Us team of @chefsteve , @pandamama and @offoodandart for not getting an entry in on time, but thought I would still give you a laugh or two with my attempts. Yes there were a couple, plus many factors which stopped me dead in my tracks!
BUT, knife skills challenge I will beat all on my own soon, especially after the encouragement by @foodforsoul whose stunning entry really inspired me!
What happened?
Firstly I was stumped with this challenge, really did not know which dish would best display the various cuts - looking back salad would have been my best bet, but in the end I could only think of doing a roast chicken dinner with stuffing, potato bake and stir fry vegetables, but all my plans went haywire!
My stir fry ingredients - Yellow and red Peppers as well as Carrots cut into thin & medium Julienne strips, some red Peppers diced medium, Red Onion finely sliced, Cabbage shredded, Courgettes sliced into rounds - lots of learning to do all round
Firstly I prepared the Macadamia Nut & herb stuffing using diced Onions, toasted Breadcrumbs, Macadamia Nuts, fresh Rosemary & Thyme, one Egg to bind it all plus a dried Garlic & Herb seasoning.
Two slices toasted bread with about 1/2 cup toasted Macadamia Nuts placed into food processor.
Rosemary & Thyme finely chopped - need to work on this skill as well!
Herbs and egg plus seasoning added to bread mixture to make the stuffing.
Lemon Chicken had been marinating in fresh Lemon juice and Rosemary for about two hours, then seasoned with garlic & herb seasoning and stuffed.
My Granny taught me to lay the chicken down on it's breast side to keep the white meat moist and crisp the skin on the backbone & thighs and drums. Lemon quarters tucked under the wings and drums.
First failure - I had turned the oven on and when I was ready to pop the chicken in, oven was still cold, what now?
Fortunately our guest cottage was empty - guests left that morning - but now I had to run down to the cottage, turn that oven on and have the chicken cooked, carved and served to our studio unit guests, two young students who have very healthy appetites, like most young men do! Time was becoming an issue!
I had sliced potatoes into neat medium thickness rounds for a potato bake, so that also had to be carted downstairs!
Fortunately the stir fry could be cooked on my own stove top, but time was marching on with all the running to and fro!!!
I ran downstairs to find potato bake burnt - no pics of that failure - I managed to save it with magic melted cheese and still serve it, was delicious when I got around to having my dinner.
I actually decided at this point that it was time to throw in the towel for my knife skills challenge!
Chicken was beautifully roasted with crispy skin but I had to tear it apart or my guests would start breaking down walls, it was dinner time!
All that was left for us was carving the chicken breast, serving it with the gorgeous herb and nut stuffing and stir fry veggies plus a glass of dry white wine which was much needed to calm down my nerves ;)
I had second thoughts about posting my attempt at knife skills, so the cell phone came out again to take the last photo :)
All this happened on Sunday.
Monday morning came with not much to do after breakfast serving so I was all geared to post my CWU entry when the gate bell went and my sister in law arrived!
I've been Mandy's chief adviser with setting up her guesthouse, plus she is computer challenged as she calls it, and was having some issues with her website...so Monday became a bizzy Monday...and time ran out to get my post in before the clock struck 14:00 here in South Africa :(
So there you have my sad story called Knife Skills Epic Failure, but thank you for the challenge, I now realise that I need to practice those skills to plate up beautiful food, so hope there's another similar challenge one of these days and I manage to make the cut :)
A quick look at my attempt:
Thank you for stopping by
Comments, upvotes & resteems all much appreciated :)
Copyright @lizelle - All Rights Reserved
Great post @lizelle and it definitely does not look like a “failure” to me. On the contrary this was very well executed. I particularly like the fact that you’ve introduced one more element to it being the roast chicken. I like the way you’ve thinly sliced them before playing. Great job!
Thank you so much for your encouragement @foodforsoul, I would have stood on the sidelines if it wasn't for you but did not expect this to become an entry, so kind of @chefsteve :)
ohhhhh i'm not sure why you thought it was bad??? but i thought you did a lovely job and my stomach is growling for all that food now! heheheheheh
i especially loved the colors that you chose - eating the rainbow for sure!!! :) healthy, delicious, beautiful! nicely done in my opinion!!!
Ah thank you @dreamsteem, it sure tasted good, glad you noticed the colours, that's what I was trying to achieve :)
@lizelle this is a great entry and a wonderful learning experience. We can overlook you being late by a few hours.
The most important thing is that you did something! We only learn when we are outside of our comfort zone. When faced with a difficult challenge you figured out a way to tackle it. It would be a lot easier to sit on the sideline and let the week pass by. But then you would of lost the opportunity to learn something about knife cuts and where you can focus your attention in the future to get better (we can all get better!).
You demonstrated skillful knife cuts. Even the cuts that can't be seen are important. For example in your stuffing, these unseen but precise cuts will result in an evenly cooked dish. It is all of these little steps that people often rush through that make a big difference in the finished dish. Your stir-fried veggies look great with all of those uniform cuts.
Normally we are our worst critic. Which, in this case, is good because you discovered areas that you want to improve upon. I'm glad that you accepted this challenge and learned a bit about knife skills and yourself! Well done!
It is nice to see that you can give some leeway with your rules to folks who support and participate regularly in your competitions. A sign of class in my book.
Thank you @sultnpapper for your comment and complement! We admire our Cook with Us community so much. They are the best!
Ah thank you so much for your very kind gesture and great feedback @chefsteve, did not expect this, much appreciated :)
You are so right, I have learned a lot with this challenge not only in the kitchen but also that I have some really nice steemit friends! Loving the cookwithus community :)
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What an amazing post @lizelle...time stops for no one right? Although your cuts looked perfect by the way! What a beautiful dish. I too felt challenged by this one! I guess that's how we learn right? :)
Ah thank you @birdsinparadise! Very true, this challenge has really been just that, and I think we've all learnt a thing or two, I definitely want to learn more now!
Ahhhh Lizelle. I just ate and you managed to make me hungry again. And I'm not a young man-maybe in that respect my youth is still with me :)
Your knife skills look fine to me. I almost always grab an old wooden hafted steel knife that was my mother's. It suits me, and I very rarely photograph my food so the presentation isn't much to me.
Thanks for a great post. Make that thanks for ANOTHER great post!
Ah thank you so much for your lovely comments and support @bigtom13 :)
You are so funny @lizelle! I am so glad you didn't give up altogether and still posted because what you have done is not a failure at all! You have demonstrated skillful cuts in the various elements of your dish. We are always working in the kitchen and employing these different cutting methods without being conscious of them. You are a pro in the kitchen so slowing down to think and analyze the cuts naturally makes you feel like you're not doing things right. Don't fret ... you are! Your lovely photos above prove it.
Lovely and delicious looking dish!
Thanks for showing up to the knife skills party and I sure hope to see you at the @docsmith challenge!
Ah thank you so much for the encouragement @offoodandart, although I got frustrated at times, I still had fun with this :)
Looks great and I'm sure it tasteed great as well! Actually, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong with your knife skills?
Thanks @bengy, my cuts still are uneven but had good practice with this challenge & fun as well :)
Looks like good knife skills to me! Better than I can do, that's for sure! That sounds like a fun challenge, but sounds like you also had a very challenging time! At least you burned some calories running around to get the chicken cooked! :)
LOL that's true! Thanks for stopping by @apanamamama:)
Thanks for entering @lizelle - much appreciate your effort and this is certainly not a failure - once again a great recipe from you - and don't let your cutting skills get you down - you still have to compete for the @docsmith knife
Thank you so much for CWU, really had fun in between the dramas but did not expect to have an entry this week, will practice my cuts :)