How To Dice An Onion

Sometimes when you've been cooking for a long time, you just assume that everyone knows how to do the same things you do.  But then I remember that I didn't always know my way around the kitchen like I do now.  I learned a lot by osmosis, growing up in a family of great cooks, and the rest has come from trial and error and watching all those chefs on the food network.  As many hours as I've logged on that station, I think I should receive some kind of honorary culinary degree.   

The thought popped into my head as I was making dinner one night that it might be fun to do some basic kitchen "how- to" posts.   Since almost every meal I make starts with dicing an onion, this seemed like a good place to start.  I cut up a lot of onions before I learned there was a better way to go about this task.  This is how I do it.

I start by cutting the root end off the onion.

Then I turn the onion around and cut off the other end.

I sit the onion upright and cut right down the middle.

Next, off comes the peeling.

With the knife parallel to the work surface, I slice through the onion 

without cutting all the way to the end.  This helps the onion stay intact as I slice several more times.

I usually make three slices, but if I wanted really small dices, I would slice across the onion four or five times.

Then I turn the onion half around and while holding onto the sides, make slices all the way across, about 1/4 inch apart.

Starting at one end of the onion, slice across to the other end and the onion will fall into perfect dices.

I realize as I'm typing this how complicated it sounds when put into writing, but trust me, it's fast and easy once you get the hang of it.  It takes me less than a minute to dice a large onion.