Masterclasses: Using a cleaver

Perhaps one of my favourite utensils to use in Chinese cooking has got to be the Chinese cleaver. This might look quite barbaric, but actually it's quite sensitive if you know how to use it. There are so many different techniques, so I'm going to show you some of them.

First - crushing. This is perfect for crushing up garlic. The Chinese believe not only is it easier to peel the garlic, because the skin just falls off, but crushing allows it release all those aromatic aromas of the garlic. The cleaver is perfect for scooping.

With chillies - you can slice the chillies just across, and keep the seeds in if you like your heat. Or, if you lay the chilli flat and just slide along, in one clean swoop you can get rid of the membranes. And of course you can slice.

When using a cleaver, just make sure that you tuck your fingers in and never raise the blade higher than your middle knuckle. That just makes sure you protect your fingers. And obviously concentrate when you're using it.

In Chinese cooking, most root vegetables are peeled first. Top and tail. And then the first technique is what we call a 'roll and chop'. Hold the carrot horizontally straight, hold the cleaver about a 30 degree angle. And just chop, and sort of… roll.

This next technique is called 'ma-er duo'. And 'ma-er duo' means the shape of a horse's ear. Especially root vegetables like carrots, where you want to cook it really fast on high heat in a wok, it pays to cut them into the shape of a horse's ear. At a very, very steep angle so you create more surface area allowing it to cook very rapidly on high heat.

Chinese chefs, when slicing up peppers with the cleaver, very simply top and tail. Then they make a small incision along one side of the pepper, and then with the cleaver, move it through the pepper, and then it's ready to julienne.

With herbs, for example, coriander, if you want to finely chop, of course just chop through. You could also balance the front and the back, in a rocking motion, almost like an Italian mezzaluna.

For meat, the cleaver is really useful for slicing, cutting up strips of meat, cubing, as well as little grains, which in Chinese we call 'li'. So, slicing, strips. So you slice a piece and then cut that.

And then cubes, into maybe rectangles and then down the middle. And this we call 'kuai' in Mandarin Chinese.

Then, little grains. So, first, strips, lining all the meat up and then slicing them again. Almost like a dice, but then going over it with the cleaver again. This gives you little pieces, or 'li', of meat, which is supposed to resemble little grains of rice. So - slices, strips, cubes and 'li', grains.

The cleaver is fantastic for hacking off meat. I've got a gorgeous piece of roast duck, so I'm going to demonstrate how to cut off the leg. What you need to do is just aim well, be careful of your fingers and just let the blade of the cleaver fall through the meat so it just cuts right through the bone and through to the other side. With one motion, decisive motion. Now for a bit of the thigh. This gorgeous roast duck is delicious served with rice and a little bit of soy sauce gravy.

I've cut the carcass in half and then we're going to cut lengthways through the meat to expose some of that flesh. I'm just cutting it away from the bone to get a beautiful piece of breast like that. And then just slice and scoop.

The rest of the carcass could be used to create a delicious stock or perhaps a great noodle soup.

I hope I've shown you some of the most essential ingredients in Chinese cooking and if you're a keen Chinese cook perhaps you'll go and invest in a Chinese cleaver.