Kiwi have become very popular in the past few years as consumers have discovered their seductive mix of sweet and tart flavors. Chef Bruce Mattel demonstrates how to cut and peel the fruit using a paring knife, first trimming the ends, then cutting off the hair-like outer fibers. Cutting the kiwi into 1/8- to 1/4-inch slices is the final step.
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Hi, I'm Chef Bruce Mattel from the Culinary Institute of America, and I'm going to show you this kitchen basic: how to peel and slice kiwi.
Here we have a kiwi fruit. Kiwi is a fruit you see sometimes as a garnish on fruit salad, or as an accompaniment to many different desserts. It's green inside, it has a relatively sweet and tart flavor, and it's gotten very popular over the years. It's very easy to slice, and I'm going to show you how to do that.
First we're going to peel it. I take my paring knife, and I'm going to take the two ends off the kiwi. Then I'm going to use my paring knife and take short strips of skin off the kiwi until it's clean all the way around. I want to try to minimize the amount of waste, so I get pretty close to the surface and just use the blade and slide my knife. The skin is actually edible on a kiwi; however, it's not very palatable, because of these little hairlike substances on the surface. So most people do peel it - although occasionally you do see it served with the skin on.
So I'm going to slice the kiwi, and I recommend that you slice it anywhere between an eighth and a quarter inch thick. Just hold it carefully, slice it straight down, and use the knife back and forth so you don't bruise the kiwi by pressing down. Use the blade of the knife. Then, depending on what you're going to use it for, you could use one or more slices. We're just going to nicely place it on a plate and shingle it out so we can see -- kiwi!
So here you have it: peeled and sliced kiwi.