Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Do you wash your herbs, such as cilantro, parsley before using them in your dishes? I noticed that if wet, they are different to handle/measure and also they look different? what is your approach to that?

— Svjetlana Dolovcak

Answer:

Sometimes you're gonna get them at the grocery store and the mister has just, uh, hit them. And when you get them home, they're very, very moist. So going back to how some vegetables don't like moisture, you can take a cloth napkin or a kitchen cloth, put them in here, cover them, pat them dry vigorously, and then I would store them in, uh, a container. Uh, I wouldn't use plastic because for some reason I have found that, um, putting my cilantro in a plastic bag seems to make a slime, uh, carnival. So I would either use a, you know, glass container or even one of those paper bags that we used before, but wash them, dry them. Yes, uh, even if they're organic, I still will, uh, will wash. So right now, if you've been to the grocery store, you've noted, um, cilantro of four for $5, and you're thinking to yourself, oh, wow, that's such a bargain. But it isn't a bargain if you're not gonna use it. Um, I've been making a lot of tomatillo sauce this season, and, uh, I've been going through a lot of cilantro, so that works for me. But sometimes, uh, in my own refrigerator, I have found cilantro that looks like it came from who knows where, who knows when. So, uh, and that's always caused to clean out your vegetable blend. So, very good question. Excellent question. And to that point, when you're in that part of the produce aisle where you see all of the fresh herbs, do not be tantalized by the herbs that are in those little cups. Uh, cilantro, dill, garlic, parsley, already chopped up for you, but they have a lot of preservatives in them, and they will alter the flavor of what it is that you want to eat. And then above them are those two that always look so intriguing. Most of them have oil in them. So I would say to stick with the fresh stuff.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan