Chopping Herbs

Chopping Herbs
Whether they come from the supermarket or the garden, herbs should be rinsed well before using. Discards the tough stems, along with any wilted or discolored leaves.

Blot them with towel and let them air dry for a few minutes; herbs need to be thoroughly dry before they are chopped.

A salad spinner can be used to speed the drying process.

Not every herb takes well to chopping; some are too small or too fine to attack with knife. When using only a few basil or coriander leaves, it is best to tear them into pieces with your fingers.

Most varieties of thyme, marjoram or oregano have tiny leaves that can be simply stripped from their stems onto the pot.

Chives are never chopped, but are snipped with scissors or sliced across into pretty little rings.

Serving a dish with a sprig of fresh rosemary is often more effective than chopping the leaves up and adding them to the food; the scent of the leaves will influence the flavor quite sufficiently and tough rosemary leaves are not pleasant to chew.

In contrast, parsley – both the curly and flat leaf varieties – can be chopped as fine as you like and in some circumstances can even be subjected to the food processor.

Note that a food processor and handheld knife produce different results.

The processor tends to make the parsley wetter and a little mushy, especially when you are using the flat leaf variety.

Sometimes this is perfectly acceptable, but it is not recommend.

A pleasing, regular effect is obtained by making a chiffonade of herbs – that is finely cut ribbons.

This is an attractive way of serving quantities of herbs that have larger leaves such as basil, Cuba oregano, perilla and some mints.

The resulting leafy heap serves as an automatic bed for meats and other foods, or as a garnish and also as a tasty ingredient in stuffing or in stir-fried dishes.

A very fine chiffonade can be used in soups or salad dressing.
Chopping Herbs