Let me show you how to quickly and easily chiffonade basil or your favorite herb. You can use this technique to decorate your dishes.
Step 1: Stack Your Basil Leaves from biggest to smallest
Take a bunch of fresh basil leaves. Make dure the stems are fully removed. Place the leaves in a stack, starting with the largest ones at the bottom and the smallest one on top. Make sure they are all facing the same direction, so that they all fit into each other nicely.
Step 2: Roll the Leaves Tightly
Start from the long ends, tightly roll the basil leaves together. Pretend like you are rolling a cigar or a paper, like we used to do in school. Roll it slowly without loosing any of the leaves. This might take a few tries to perfect.
Step 3: Slice the Roll Thinly and Equally
Now it’s time to slice the rolled basil leaves. Using one of the sharpest knifes you have, start cutting thin slices from one end to the other. Maintain a slow and steady pace to achieve thin slices, ideally around 5mm at most. Make sure all the cuts are of the same thickness, otherwise it will look ugly.
Step 4: Unveil the Stripes of Basil
Congratulations! You’ve successfully cut a chiffonade of basil. Separate the cuts of basil or your favorite herb and use it in your recipe.
That’s it – a quick and simple tutorial to creating chiffonade. This technique allows you to explore new dimensions of taste and aesthetics in your culinary creations with minimal effort. Whether you use it as a basil garnish for pasta, a colorful addition to salads, or an aromatic topping for soups, the chiffonade is sure to impress your guests and elevate your dishes to a whole new level!
Check out this other trick on how to finely chop onion.
