KNIFE SKILLS:
How to Cut a Bell Pepper
There are two camps when it comes to
cutting peppers: those who cut skin side up
and those who cut skin side down.I used to be in the former, finding that
having the skin up was the only way I could
break through it with my knife. The flesh
would act as support while the knife cut
through the skin. Then I realized that with a
really sharp knife, cutting through the skin
when the pepper faces down is not a
problem, and cutting that way prevents you
from compressing the flesh.
To cut a bell pepper, start by splitting it
lengthwise in half through the stem with a
sharp knife. Pull out the stem and seedy
core and discard. Pull out the white ribs
with your fingertips. For pepper strips,
place each pepper half skin side down on the
cutting board and slice lengthwise into strips
of even width. For dice, hold a few strips at
a time and slice across them.