Now I know I like to preach fundamentals and technique on a regular basis.  Knife work in my opinion can make a lack luster home cooked meal look really sexy and help deliver that wow factor to complement your flavors.  But also, and again this may just be me, it’s just fun cutting shit up!  Sharp knife, good cutting board and fresh ingredients just make me happy in my kitchen.  Almost more so than the actual cooking process itself.  So take a little time out of your busy Memorial Day schedule and chop up your ingredients.

The thing is, if you fuck up, no worries!  It’s not like you can’t cook/eat/savor your chopping failure.  There’s a couple different ways of julienne your produce, but for today we’ll just cover making apple matchsticks with go fantastically tossed in a fresh salad or as a tasty garnish.

Basically, when you’re looking to julienne an ingredient you’re looking to make thin strips or matchsticks.  It’s also the first step when you need to Brunoise something (see Top Chef Season 5 opener).

Get out a knife or peeler to remove the outside skin.

Now slice thin sections until you get to the core.

Be sure to cut along the core to remove the two outside pieces and slice thin as well.

Stack your slices and cut clean thin matchsticks out of the slices.

Don’t you feel gourmet?