The whole point of last night's dinner was to be quick and easy. I had a surprise dinner guest in my mother-in-law and a baby who we'd planned to eat with at 6:30 so the right balance of quick and presentable was my primary concern.
Quick Tip: Using Scissors Instead of a Knife
Because my mother-in-law was coming, I needed a step beyond scrambled eggs with pre-made kale pesto, my fallback with Ursula on busy nights.
Maybe a basic tomato sauce, without the carrots and celery (didn't have them) but what about adding some dried Porcini mushrooms? Porcini are a back pocket trick of mine to add depth to sauces, soups, and marinades.
After reconstituting the mushrooms in boiling water, I came to the task of having to cut them, something I take pleasure in when I have time and a sleeping baby. Plunging my fingers into a hot bowl of mushroom broth, retrieving some slimy, flaccid mushroom pieces and cutting them didn't appeal, so I remembered the handy pair of shears in my drawer, and all for which they are useful.
By using scissors instead of a knife, the cutting can be done quickly, and without removing the mushrooms from the bowl. It was done in under ten seconds. Including the photography (obviously - apologies for the camera phone shot.)
For a great list of other things you can use kitchen shears for, see Nina's ode to her Messermeister Kitchen Shears where she lists eight more kitchen uses for scissors.
Tags
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It's not exclusively a korean thing, but every korean cook i know uses scissors more than knives. I have a couple pairs and use them for just about anything softer than a carrot.
view mjoe's profile
i always use scissors to cut the bacon when i make spaghetti carbonara. otherwise i get bacon grease all over my cutting board. it's a great time saver too!
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view cassiopia's profile
I use them ALL the time...I make personal-sized servings of pesto with kitchen shears (when I don't want to pull out the food processor), and they're handy for dicing sundried tomatoes...pull them from the jar and cut them up on their way into the dish. In a small apartment, it makes clean-up a lot easier (no cutting boards to wash, no pulling out of the huge food processor). Plus you get a forearm workout :)
view Kate H.'s profile
I was just using scissors to cut up chicken for a chicken salad. Saves having to wash a cutting board.
Especially useful for cutting up raw chicken for the same reason.
view ADonuts's profile
my husband uses scissors to cut egg rolls, chicken, beans... we've had to have a discussion about food-scissors vs the junk-drawer scissors. He's Chinese and his mom uses scissors in the kitchen all the time.
view kdb's profile
Cutting Pizza is much easier with scissors than with any other method.
view Crosius's profile
My family has always used scissors in cooking. Even for cutting pizza!
I remember one meal at college when I grabbed a pair of scissors off the kitchen counter to cut up some cooked ramen into bitesized pieces - and my roommates stared at me in horror. I was all "what?" until I realized they weren't the food scissors at all - one of them had just left a pair of craft scissors by the sink.
view Kaete's profile