2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Many people love cilantro, but keeping this rather delicate herb fresh is not always easy - it often starts to creep and rot. Nevertheless, if you approach the issue of its storage correctly, you can keep the cilantro fresh even for several months. And then you can enjoy delicious dishes with fresh herbs throughout the season
Cold storage
You can store fresh cilantro in the refrigerator. However, before you send it to the refrigerator, you should trim its stems. It is best to use a pair of fairly sharp kitchen scissors for this. It is not recommended to cut off more than 2.5 cm of the stem from each branch. And in the absence of scissors, you can use a sharp knife. Why do you need to prune the stems? This procedure allows you to release the so-called "living" parts of the stems that can absorb water, because the stems that have been in the air for more than an hour die, thereby limiting the ability of cilantro twigs to absorb life-giving moisture.
And you should not rinse the cilantro at this stage - its leaves should be dry. If there is debris or dirt on the plants, then they are washed off immediately before use. It is important to remember that in all cases cilantro is washed at the end of storage, and not before it.
Then a glass jar is filled with cool water - as a rule, it is filled by half or a quarter of water. The water level must be sufficient to cover the stems. But the leaves should not be under water. That is, cilantro is treated in much the same way as a bouquet of cut flowers - just like flowers in a vase, it will absorb water through the stems. Accordingly, cilantro leaves will remain fresh all this time.
Placed in a jar, cilantro is covered with a plastic bag. The package must be clean. You can fasten it around the neck of the jar with an elastic band. Such a "vacuum" will help protect greens from the destructive effects of air. A jar of cilantro should be stored in the refrigerator. As a rule, it is stored until the leaves begin to change their color or fade. In most cases, cilantro stays bright and fresh for about two weeks or more. By the way, the water in the jar must be systematically changed - as soon as its color begins to change, it is poured out and the jar is filled with clean fresh water. It is quite enough to change the water every few days.
Storage in freezer bags
Fresh cilantro leaves are washed under running cool water, then the water is allowed to drain and the greens are dried with a paper towel. You can also let the water drain by folding the cilantro into a colander, or you can simply spread it on several layers of clean paper towels and keep it that way until all the water has drained off. The plants must be dry enough, so the leaves are additionally wiped dry with a paper towel. At the same time, you should not rub them diligently, since in this case there is a high probability of damaging them.
If desired, the leaves can be trimmed a little. In principle, it is quite acceptable to freeze whole leaves, however, if you want to use greens immediately after thawing them, it is better to cut off the leaves from the stems with a sharp knife. It is not forbidden to use kitchen scissors for this purpose. This method is good in that it makes it possible to easily measure out the required portions of greens after defrosting them.
Then the cilantro is laid out in one layer on a baking sheet. In this case, it is important to ensure that the twigs and leaves do not lie on top of each other and do not come into contact with each other. If you lay out the greens in several layers, the branches will begin to stick together, which will significantly complicate the process of their subsequent separation during defrosting. Place the cilantro baking sheet in the freezer until it is completely frozen. Next, the frozen greens are transferred to special bags for freezing. They usually write the date of freezing, as well as the name of the herb and its weight. In this form, cilantro can be stored in the freezer for several months. And before using, the greens are allowed to thaw - its temperature should rise to room temperature.
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