Easy vegetable carving

1. Dice shallots

Pick a small shallot clove for this easy vegetable decoration. Use a paring knife to remove the skin from the top of the clove if it has some. After that, cut the rootlet off.

1-1 Making three horizontal cuts without cutting through

Firstly, slice the shallot from the rootlet end horizontally with 0.5 to 0.7 cm height, but don’t cut all the through to the end. Keep as small a width as you can hold and let it keep some connecting area. After that, make a second level slice in the same way.

Also, process the third level and slice a horizontal cut.

1-2 Vertical cuts but not cut through

Secondly, make some vertical cuts, and keep each cut with 0.5 to 0.7 cm space between. Process it through the width of the shallot.

1-3 Turn 90 degrees to make vertical cuts

Thirdly, turn the shallot 90 degrees, we are going to dice it with vertical cuts. Hold the connected section while doing the cutting.

The cutting hand will be able to cut lots of beautiful small diced pieces of shallot.

Keep cutting through till the end and you will get a diced shallot.

2. Carving flower from a baby capsicum

2-1 Remove calyx and inside seeds

Remove the top of the calyx with a paring knife, when you operate it will be similar as digging a hole on an object surface. See the article How to use a paring knife to tell you more ways to use it. Alternatively, you are able to just cut off the calyx.

Insert the straight blade of the paring knife into the inside of the baby capsicum and remove the capsaicin seeds.

Normally, there are two connections of the capsaicin glands in baby capsicum. You will need to cut the full length of it to remove the entire placenta. After that, all the capsaicin glands and seeds will come out easily.

2-2 Carving four petals

Make a cross-cut on the baby capsicum without a cut through. Keep about one quarter height at the bottom of the capsicum.

Carve an arc on the top piece of each petal of the baby capsicum.

This is what you should have made, a baby capsicum flower.

3. Using celery to be pistils in the flower

Prepare a celery stalk and keep it with 1.5 times longer than the height of the baby capsicum flower that you have just carved.

Trim the correct length of the celery stalk and cut it in half in your hands, see Cut a small object on hands, the article How to use a paring knife to tell you how to operate it.

At this point, push the celery stalk into the baby capsicum. Use a paring knife to carve the top area of the celery about 0.5 width Julienne, cut till reaching the top of the baby capsicum.

Keep carving the celery top till you finish all of it.

4. Fill in diced shallots

Grab the diced shallots that you have done from section 1 steps and fill it into the baby capsicum. Also, try to fill the gaps with diced shallots and separate each stick with them. Make them separated like a fan.

Fill up as much with diced shallots as you can inside the baby capsicum.