The blog of cooking-ez.com
Coarsely chopped herbs
Although we are in the middle of winter as I write these lines, you should not hesitate to make salads at this time, it is actually quite simple, rather fast, and so pleasant.
A while ago, I already told you that a salad is a salad, but a salad with herbs is immediately something much better: taste, freshness, chewiness, herbs bring all that, and you really shouldn't hesitate to put them everywhere, if you like it of course.
Well, do you have to chop them up ? cut them with scissors ? thin ? thick ?
A while ago, I already told you that a salad is a salad, but a salad with herbs is immediately something much better: taste, freshness, chewiness, herbs bring all that, and you really shouldn't hesitate to put them everywhere, if you like it of course.
Well, do you have to chop them up ? cut them with scissors ? thin ? thick ?
7,107 15 4.9
Last modified on: January 9th 2021
Keywords for this post:HerbsKnifeChoppingSaucesSaladsScissorsChopperCoarsely chopped herbs
In the old days, it was customary to chop parsley very finely, for example, before adding it to a recipe. Generations of cooks have learned to make a quasi "powder" of parsley, because that was how it was done.
And then, with the arrival of the new kitchen, the chefs realised that the finer you chopped, the more the taste of the herb was lost, the expression to express this is "The taste remains on the board", understand: you chopped so much that all the taste is gone on the cutting board, and very little is left with the mince itself.
As a result, we backtrack, we no longer chop finely, we chop big, very big, or even we don't chop at all.
In practice, at home, no more fine chopping so the best thing is either to chop, "chisel" is a better term, roughly, with a sharp knife, and add immediately to the recipe/salad.
To do this:
- Remove all the leaves from your chosen herb (parsley for example), discard the tails, or better still, use them in another recipe.
- Gather all the leaves into a small, tightly packed pile
- Cut this small pile, fairly roughly, with a sharp knife (4 or 5 strokes, not more)
- Immediately add the herbs to your recipe.
By doing this, you will get the taste and freshness of the herbs in your dish, and if you can stir after adding them, cover and wait 30 minutes, it will be even better.
And if you come across chopped herbs in a shop, it is a heresy, don't buy them, depending on their degree of freshness they will simply have little or no taste.
To sum up: Don't chop your herbs too finely, chop instead, with a knife and add immediately, to really reveal the taste.
And then, with the arrival of the new kitchen, the chefs realised that the finer you chopped, the more the taste of the herb was lost, the expression to express this is "The taste remains on the board", understand: you chopped so much that all the taste is gone on the cutting board, and very little is left with the mince itself.
As a result, we backtrack, we no longer chop finely, we chop big, very big, or even we don't chop at all.
In practice, at home, no more fine chopping so the best thing is either to chop, "chisel" is a better term, roughly, with a sharp knife, and add immediately to the recipe/salad.
To do this:
- Remove all the leaves from your chosen herb (parsley for example), discard the tails, or better still, use them in another recipe.
- Gather all the leaves into a small, tightly packed pile
- Cut this small pile, fairly roughly, with a sharp knife (4 or 5 strokes, not more)
- Immediately add the herbs to your recipe.
By doing this, you will get the taste and freshness of the herbs in your dish, and if you can stir after adding them, cover and wait 30 minutes, it will be even better.
And if you come across chopped herbs in a shop, it is a heresy, don't buy them, depending on their degree of freshness they will simply have little or no taste.
To sum up: Don't chop your herbs too finely, chop instead, with a knife and add immediately, to really reveal the taste.
Lasts posts
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...1,2545 November 12th 2023
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
Maybe you've already made this strange observation: when you were a kid, there were things you hated, but as an adult it's almost the opposite? For example, you used to hate spinach or chicory, but now you love it?1,3155 November 5th 2023
How easy is it to chop herbs?
Whenever you have fresh herbs - parsley, chervil, coriander, mint, etc. - to incorporate into a recipe, we tell you to chop them up. In this case, "chopping" means separating the leaves from the stems, keeping only the leaves, and chopping them more or less finely. It's not very complicated,...3,3205 September 12th 2023
The softness of sandwich bread
You're probably familiar with what's known in France as "pain de mie", a very white, molded and rather soft bread, widely used in cooking, particularly for croque-monsieur. Let's find out what it's all about.3,377 September 5th 2023
Cooking cauliflower
Dramatic observation: cauliflower when cooked has a bad reputation ("it doesn't smell good!" and the like), and yet it's an excellent vegetable, very Breton, that deserves to be treated well, to give the best of itself.3,5953.3 August 29th 2023
Other pages you may also like
The golden-brown finish on puff pastry
Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...38K 24.7 February 8th 2018
Cleaning endives
If you buy your endives elsewhere than in supermarkets, and in this case the best is of course from a market gardener, he or she is the one who planted and harvested them, in this case you will have endives full of earth or sand, depending on where they were grown, which is normal and reassuring, we...17K4.6 March 24th 2020
The so-called "nervous" meats
You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...19K4.5 April 16th 2021
Fruits which can ruin your jelly
There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...65K4.0 March 6th 2013
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .115K 14.2 February 7th 2017
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.