Chiffa-wha? Chiffonade. It’s a fancy name for cutting herbs or other greens into long, thin strips. It’s literal French translation is “made of rags”. Sounds appetizing, right? Even so, it’s a nice little technique to have in your back pocket.
I mostly use chiffonade for basil (do chiffonade? make chiffonade? I’m not sure the right verbage here). It is nice for bruschetta, caprese salads, pasta, etc. I like it because it makes the basil smaller so it gets distributed better. And it looks pretty. Besides sometimes you need a dash of fancy in your life.
How to make chiffonade of basil
1. Stack your basil leaves. Put the bigger leaves on the bottom and smaller leaves on top. I’m using 5 leaves here, but you can do this with as many as you are comfortable working with.
2. Starting at the tip (non-stem end), roll the leaves
until you have a little cigar of basil leaves.
3. Hold the cigar down on your cutting board and cut thin slices from one end. Go as slow as you need to.
Keep cutting slices…
Until you reach the end of your cigar.
4. Voilá! Chiffonade. Now go fancify your dinner.
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Thanks for showing.
always a great technique. where’d you get that fantastic, weathered cutting board?
cheers,
*heather*
I found it in Dan’s kitchen :) It’s just an old board he had lying around (I think it may have been through the dishwasher a couple of times which gave it a more weathered look).
What a helpful post! (with lovely pictures to boot)
basil should not but cut with metal as it will oxidize. it will release more flavors if torn. if you want the effect of thin slices, use a plastic knife.
Good point, Jodie. The basil will begin to oxidize if you leave it for very long before using it, but I’ve found that if you cut it right before tossing it into pasta it isn’t a problem. I’ll use a ceramic knife next time :)
I am going to grow a ton of basil plants along my fence this summer. I can’t wait. I will be doing a lot of this:)
I will try this:) I have been using a ton of basil lately. Very Pretty!!!
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