00:00:02of cooking it’s great for flavor amazing
00:00:05for health to be general and I’m going
00:00:07to split it into two camps first of all
00:00:09we’ve got the woody camp so that’s
00:00:11things like we’ve got the time here
00:00:12we’ve got the rosemary here and the sage
00:00:15so thyme rosemary sage they’re really
00:00:18common herbs they’re brilliant herbs but
00:00:21also you’ve got things like bay leaf
00:00:22myrtle there’s all sorts of weird and
00:00:25wonderful things out there go get them
00:00:27plant them up whether it’s a window box
00:00:29up in a flat or in a back garden
00:00:31brilliant and also the great thing about
00:00:32these is you can have time rosemary sage
00:00:35nearly all year round if not all year
00:00:37round to put into your cooking so at
00:00:40this time of year when the weather’s not
00:00:42too hot what you can do is just run
00:00:44these under hot water for seven seconds
00:00:46that loosens up the natural oil makes it
00:00:48much much more tasty and easy to deal
00:00:50with with things like time to prep these
00:00:53dead simple just grab yourself a stalk
00:00:56hold your fingers over it like that and
00:00:58just carefully pull the stalk away from
00:01:01here see that nice and easy and then
00:01:05with the rosemary you can do exactly the
00:01:07same but the other way around you hold
00:01:09the end and the rosemary leaves will
00:01:12come off you might not always want to
00:01:14take the herbs off the stalk and for the
00:01:16sage literally you’re just snapping them
00:01:19and picking them off so once you pick
00:01:25these woody herbs you know you can
00:01:27either roughly slice them or what I like
00:01:30to do I call it the cigar method I
00:01:32basically get as many leaves as I can
00:01:34and just sort of roll it up and fold it
00:01:37up and sweep you know as many of the
00:01:39leaves into it as possible and then that
00:01:41way you’ve got a nice dense clump of
00:01:43herbs and then using that rocking action
00:01:45on the knives you can either finally all
00:01:48roughly slice these little babies into
00:01:50either slices or you can just simply
00:01:53twist it afterwards and then you can
00:01:55kind of get it sort of roughly chopped
00:01:58and if you want it really fine use the
00:02:00cross chopping method and there you go
00:02:03and as I said horses for courses you
00:02:06might not always want to slice or chop
00:02:08woody herb so you might want to bash em
00:02:10or leave them whole but there’s that
00:02:12for the moment and then on the soft
00:02:13herbs here’s a few little things I use
00:02:16the same method again parsley stalks
00:02:19often I use there’s nothing wrong with
00:02:20them I’ll normally take parsley stalks
00:02:22down to about here right they’re
00:02:24delicious
00:02:25up to about here right and then I’ll use
00:02:27the slightly woodier stuff like this for
00:02:30sort of soups and stocks and stuff like
00:02:32that so instead of kind of like you know
00:02:33just endlessly picking herbs like you
00:02:36see in the restaurants you know at home
00:02:38and in the restaurant frankly I go to
00:02:40the sort of last leaf here straight off
00:02:43like that and get through my jobs
00:02:45quicker also those delicate little
00:02:48stalks in your food a delicious because
00:02:50they’re sweet and I just think you know
00:02:52it’s a good flavor so why would you
00:02:55chuck it away so that’s the parsley
00:02:56again I’ll roll that up like the cigar
00:02:59method like that and you can get really
00:03:04good results on your finely slicing
00:03:06straightaway and just rolling it out
00:03:09almost done sort of half of the slicing
00:03:11for you so there’s some sliced up
00:03:13parsley and then on things like mint and
00:03:15basil
00:03:16now mint and basil a fragrant incredible
00:03:19herbs right and a personal thing that I
00:03:21do is I get a little cup of water right
00:03:23I just have that when I’m picking my
00:03:26herbs you know I don’t do it too
00:03:27thoughtfully but I take the smaller
00:03:29leaves like this put it into the water
00:03:31right and that’s what I’m going to
00:03:33sprinkle on to my pastas my salads my
00:03:35shoes or whatever it is that I’m doing
00:03:37ray goes so these fine leaves here are
00:03:40going to be delicate to eat at the last
00:03:42minute and also they’ll look dead
00:03:44beautiful so it makes you look better
00:03:46right so the delicate ones here like
00:03:48that and then I take the big leaves like
00:03:51that and I’ll slice them up using the
00:03:53cigar method so I’ll do that on the mint
00:03:55as well just take those delicate little
00:03:57leaves in here and then take the bigger
00:04:02ones off here like that and then you
00:04:05know you can pop that in the fridge for
00:04:06hours come back to it sprinkle it over
00:04:09whatever it is you’re doing any or look
00:04:10amazing and then again on these basil
00:04:13and mint you can roll it up a lava cigar
00:04:15method and finally slice it so there you
00:04:19go there’s a bunch of tips about how to
00:04:21use your herbs you know another big
00:04:23aspect of herbs is using the pestle
00:04:25water and to know how to do that
00:04:26properly just click on pestle and water
00:04:28on the apps
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