How to: Chiffonade

This is my new little series where I take a big scary cooking term and break it down. Today's how to: chiffonade. In the most layman's term it's a cutting technique used with flat leafy greens, slicing them into ribbons. This can be done with anything as small as basil or mint to as large as collard greens or kale. For today's demonstration I'll use collards.

1. Set leaf flat on cutting board

2. For larger greens, cut out the stem

3. Lay all leaves flat and roll up like a cigar

4. Cut into thin pieces



5. Unroll pieces. Should be long and ribbon-esque

6. Cook however you please, such as sauteing with chanterelles

I wasn't always the smart cookie home chef I am now, but thanks to a lovely cooking class on basic techniques I took a few years ago, learned a few terms, some basics and some little fancy shortcuts. You probably know these too, but maybe you don't and now you just learned something new.