Knowledge Base > Barton Seaver - The Holiday Meal, Part 4: Even More Sides
Barton Seaver - The Holiday Meal, Part 4: Even More Sides
This event was on
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Barton Seaver for The Holiday Meal Part 4 to learn tips, tricks, techniques for preparing holiday sides dishes that would be welcome on any table!
Bring your questions f… Read More.
Question:
A question about herbs. I grow my own and rinse them before mincing them and they of course stick to my chef knife. Do we really need to rinse before mincing?
— Cherri Blair-Drayton
Answer:
That's up to you and how much you like sand and dirt in your food. If you grow your own you can be relatively sure that you know where they're coming from like when you buy cilantro or partially at the stores cilantro especially tends to be very Sandy. So I always wash that because the bottom line is I'd rather herbs stick to my chef knife and I have a little trouble. Chopping them. I would much rather have that then have my dish end up being Sandy and I'm not liking it at all. Right, so sort of what's the what's the worst? What's the Lesser evil there? Difficulty in shopping. Now. I've got some herbs for the sauce that I was going to make a salsa verde to show you. So these are herbs that I have washed. and once I wash them I sort of Pat them dry on towels and if you can help it and this is something I'm sure you could do is go pick your herbs 20 minutes half an hour earlier than maybe you have been and just give them a chance to try describe slap them out. You don't want to crush them. You don't want to squeegee them out, but I didn't really put a whole lot of effort into drying these and here you go the other way to sort of focus on chopping herbs. is if they're sticking to your knife it's also Think about how you're using your knife. So I sort of fold herbs in that Bunch back together. And then holding it with my hands coming across once. And then instead of trying to move the herbs, you know, it's a lot easier to move than the herbs. That's about how much it's taking. You are you are very easy to move. Watch this. Hey, you see that? Highly technical now. I have all of those herbs sort of shift and not now don't really need to move the herbs. I just move myself. Change that angle. And I can come across them just one time. And in that way and with that effort you end up with herbs that are nicely chopped. You know, it's not French Laundry Perfection little brunoise celery or Brunei parsley, but it's a very nice way to do it. So yes wash them give them a little bit of time to dry and then chop them in that way. So there you go.
