Julienning an apple is a way to build your knife skills.
When you julienne any firm fruit or vegetable, such as apples or carrots, it simply means slicing them into small square strips. For instance, to make french fries, potatoes are first julienned prior to frying. Julienning makes evenly sized sticks of food, not only for attractive appearances, but also so that they will cook evenly. By learning to julienne apples, you will be improving your knife skills. It can take a little practice, but generally even beginning cooks can learn to julienne quickly.
Instructions
1. Core and peel the apple. Using an apple corer, remove the center of the apple. Make sure that you have removed all seeds and seed pods, as these can make for undesirable textures in your apple sticks. Peel the apple to remove the skin.
2. Cut off all rounded edges. Use your 8-inch chef's knife to make each piece into a rectangle. Cut off as little of the apple as possible during this process.
3. Cut the rectangular pieces of the apple into slices that are approximately 1/8 inch thick. Try to keep the slices as even as possible, for the best appearance and for cooking each piece evenly. If the slices of the apple are of uneven widths, then they will cook at different rates.
4. Turn the slices so that the widest part is flat against the cutting board. You may place another slice of apple on top of the first slice, but generally do not try to cut more than two pieces at a time. Cut these slices into 1/8-inch strips. These strips should now be approximately 1/8 inch square.
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