Cheese is among the foods most commonly needing to be shredded.
There are many reasons you might need to shred food while cooking: cheese for homemade pizza; cabbage for coleslaw; chicken for enchiladas; or herbs for sauce. While shredding can be a chore, freshly shredded food items always taste better than those purchased pre-shredded. Fortunately, a few tips and tricks can make the process smoother, simpler and quicker.
Cheese
Many recipes, from pizza to burritos, call for shredded cheese. While pre-shredded cheese is readily available, buying a block of cheese and shredding it yourself will yield fresher, tastier results. Soft cheeses like mozzarella, can be difficult to shred; sticking it in the freezer for half an hour before shredding will make the process easier. On box graters, use the "fine" side -- the one with small holes -- for grating hard cheeses like Parmesan; use the coarse side -- with large holes -- for soft cheeses, like mozzarella. To freeze shredded cheese and make your job easier the next time around, spread the shredded cheese on a pan and freeze it; once frozen, store it in a bag.
Chicken
Chicken's texture lends itself to easy shredding; once shredded, it is excellent in saucy recipes, like chicken enchiladas or chicken "hamburgers." One of the easiest ways to shred chicken is with your fingers. Cook it by roasting or boiling it, then simply pull apart the chicken into pieces of the desired size. For a more civilized shredding process, use two forks; pin a cooked piece of chicken down with one, and draw the tines of the other across the top of the chicken, shredding it. This is a great way to use leftover chicken; after shredding, it can also be frozen easily.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are other popular candidates for shredding. Among vegetables, carrots and cabbage are commonly shredded; solid fruits like apples and pears might be shredded for use in baked goods, like muffins. While most of these fruits can be shredded using a hand grater, using a food processor can speed up the task. Alternatively, use a Chinese chef's knife to shred vegetables by slicing them at a 45-degree angle, then use the same knife to turn the slices into strips. And when using a grater, be particularly careful of your knuckles, especially when shredding hard vegetables that require heavy pressure to shred. Shredded vegetables can be easily frozen.
Herbs
Shredding herbs can be particularly tricky, due to their small size. For herbs with small leaves, like rosemary and thyme, plucking the leaves from the stem, then crushing them to release their flavors, can leave them in a "shredded" state. For larger-leafed herbs, like basil, use a knife to shred them; a grater will ruin their delicate texture -- and your fingers. Roll the herbs up like a cigar, then thinly slice the tube with a knife, for a nice, shredded result.
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