In my kitchen, parsley is a staple herb. It goes in and on nearly everything: tomato sauce, chicken, soups, stews, eggs…hell, sometimes I even put it on steaks and fish. The only thing in which I wouldn’t involve it are vegetable dishes (I like thyme on green beans, but I usually take my vegetables naked or with a touch of salt and/or butter).
As I cook, I can’t help but wonder: Am I misusing this herb? Am I taking it for granted? Is its contribution to a dish worthy of savoring in small doses, rather than tossing it about willy-nilly as has been my wont?
And another thing: is there a reason it is nearly impossible to find dried parsley in the chain grocery stores of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado? When I lived in Montana, I couldn’t find it anywhere and had to have my East Coast relatives mail it to me. I’m serious! I think once I found it in a grocery store and it was in one of those little tiny bottles reserved for mustard seed and such. That’s like a single serving of parsley for me.
Is anyone reading this thinking, Parsley on STEAK?! OUT OF THE KITCHEN! OUT!? Am I a parsley-loving philistine?
How long ago was this? What part of Montana? I’ve never had any trouble finding dried parsley in SW Montana. Even the IGA in Sheridan MT has carried it in a normal spice-sized jar and in the big (maybe 1 cup) container for the last 8 or 10 years. To get fresh, you usually have to go to a bigger town, but dried is easy to find.
I personally think that parsley would actually be one herb you could use on almost anything, especially meat, fish, and chicken, and alot won’t kill the dish, at least IMHO…the more bright verdant green, the better!
I’m referring to fresh parsley, of course, not dried…I think I’d use a much lighter hand w/ the dried…amount per dish, not variety of usage.
Did want to mention, though, that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not tossing it w/ small potatoes and butter…yum!
I lived in SE Montana when I suffered the dearth of parsley…though, hell, I was suffering the dearth of a lot of things out there (I was waaaay the hell out in the sticks, where it was 45 minutes to the nearest grocery store, and that was tiny). I remember going to a couple of different stores in Billings one day, though, looking for parsley to no avail. But maybe a fellow parsley fiend had just been through and had cleaned them out.
Ah, 2pelo honey, a person after my own heart. Parsley and potatoes? Oh, yes, please! I forgot about the potatoes.
Agreed. Dried basil has its very occasional use, but dried parsley is absolutely awful, awful stuff. I can’t imagine using it in/on anything.
Parsley can certainly go on veggies. Parsleyed potatoes are pretty standard round the household (as are dill potatoes, another Eastern European favorite.)
edit: Didn’t read closely enough–just noticed that the parsley potatoes was mentioned.
I ain’t got much more for you, other than parsley can be used in pestos.
Despite the quoted recipe, you can make a bonzer one with just parsley, chopped tomatoes, cracked wheat (burghel) and a bit of onion and dressing. T’riffic.
FWIW, there are some companies which have high enough turn over to make using their dried parsley (and chervil!) worthwhile. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember a Penzey’s batch of dried chervil being serviceable for a few applications (it could have been another supplier, however).
There shouldn’t be any problem growing lush crops of parsley or chervil indoors year-round, although you will most probably require at least one indoor growing light. It’s worth the effort if you like the taste well enough – you might find youself with enough space and radiation to get some basil and tarragon happening as well. After a few seasons the money you save buying retail product might recoup the investment costs in such a setup, which needn’t be all that expensive.
Okay, I can see not finding any in rural West Dakota.
I’m a little surprised about Billings, but never having been in a grocery store in Billings, perhaps I shouldn’t be.
I love parsley. I mean, I really love parsley. I always have some on hand. I keep it in the fridge standing upright in a small vase with some water in it and it keeps forever. My fiance sometimes asks me to tone down the parsley bit, especially on fish. He says my amandine should actually be called parsleydine.
I definitely think parsley has a taste, although trying to describe it is another story…um, tastes “bright”…if green had a taste, for me anyway, it’d be parsley. Flat leave is considered by most cooks, etc, to have a stronger flavor, while the curly might tend to be used more for garnish purposes, if lacking other, more “exciting” herbs.
Kambuckta, you mentioned Tabouleh, which is funny, because I thought of that not long after posting my initial response. I LOVE to make batches of that, and use parsley as a major ingredient, as opposed to a garnish, or for color. Also, got me craving some, but it’s just too damn cold yet. It’s one of my warm weather staples, and is great because of how long it keeps. I just freshen w/ more lemon juice, and olive oil, if necessary.
I also got myself thinking about the tiny parslied potatoes previously mentioned, and think I have to make up a batch in honor of the upcoming St Patrick’s day holiday…perhaps as a side to Lamb Shanks braised in Stout.
Dried parsley is the best placebo in your kitchen. It doesn’t have a whit of taste, but if you add it to anything, it looks homemade, long-simmered and full of herby goodness. And people will like your food better.
Fresh is a whole different story. It tastes, as 2pelo honey says, “green”. It makes whatever you put it in taste fresher. In addition to those already mentioned, I like it on steamed carrots with butter and salt.
You can also freeze parsley and it maintains it’s flavor. I keep a hunk in the freezer in a freezer zip-top and snip off what I need, still frozen, with kitchen shears. It’s actually easier to “chop” while frozen.
I would describe the taste, as others have, as “green” with perhaps a bit of a peppery-ness to it. It’s a pretty obvious flavor, in my opinion, as I really disliked anything with the smallest speck of parsley on it when I was a kid.
Now, it’s quite nice, but the most common herbs in my kitchen are cilantro and basil.
We could never be married. Basil I love. Cilantro…I can’t even be in the same room with it when it’s cut; forget trying to eat it.
Yes, I’m talking mostly about fresh parsley here (or frozen…I do that, too), but when I was aching for it back in Montana, I would have gladly taken the dried stuff. I like WhyNot’s description of it as a placebo – once I accidentally poured almost an entire jar of dried parsley into an omelette I was making (the lid was loose), and (as I was in Montana and was poor and didn’t want to waste the eggs or the parsley), I ate the omelette and it tasted just fine. Half a cup didn’t really taste any different from one tablespoon.
If you are really slow in paying your produce wholesaler, he can use parsley to garnish your wages. In my tiny herb garden, I can show you a good thyme. I can even put thyme in a bottle. Yeah, yeah, borrowed puns. Why can’t he write something oregano?
Basil I love. Cilantro…I can’t even be in the same room with it when it’s cut; forget trying to eat it.