Herbs are a necessary evil. So delicious, but oh so difficult to use up. In a fit of allaying my yuppie guilt, I fixated on using up a somewhat sad bunch of cilantro. After consulting my trusty Hot Sour Salty Sweet cookbook, I had a plan. 2X cilantro.
The book taught me this: cilantro stems are not for the trash. Apparently, you can use cilantro stems for flavor! In my handy mortar, I pestled 5 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons of black peppercorns, 3 tablespoons of coarsely chopped cilantro stems (who knew?!) and a pinch of salt. Once I had a paste, I marinated some chicken thighs in it, and soon enough, the sous chef was marching out to the grill.
The result was this ultra yummy grilled chicken noodle bowl - note the second use of cilantro. So next time you have some dying herbs, think about using the stems. Bunched together, awesome for stock/soup flavoring. Made into a paste, perfect for marinade pastes.
And when in doubt, make a dipping sauce!
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