I got this for Christmas and somehow didn't try it out until two weeks ago (and am just now getting around to blogging about it...shameful.) Anyway, I'm already a fan of my Microplane Zester/Grater (no house is a home without one) so I had high hopes for the Herb Mill...but not too high. I grow a lot of herbs and use them pretty regularly in cooking. Chopping them is usually a pain in the ass. I chiffonade my basil and sage when I feel like it and whack them in to irregular pieces with the kitchen scissors when I can't be bothered. I was hopeful the Herb Mill was going to make the herb chopping part of my life easier but I envisioned the blades gummed up from wet parsley or blackened bits of bruised up basil flecking my pasta. I figured it'd be mediocre at best but since it was a Christmas gift (thanks, Mom!) and I wasn't shelling out for it, I figured what the hell.
Well, Microplane did not disappoint. I've used this a grand total of three times now (and would have used it a lot more but there was a rash of soup-out-of-a-box dinners this week) and have been giddy each time. "The secret is in the hundreds of tiny scissors"...ok that's my words, not theirs. (Though Microplane does claim that the device has "hundreds of tiny scissors.") According to the Microplane website and instructions for fresh herbs, you should start with clean, dry herbs. I always wash mine (especially since Rearden enjoys adding nitrogen via whizzing on my garden) and though I have a small salad/herb spinner for drying I'm usually a little, um, lazy, in that department and either shake or halfheartedly paper-towel them off. Being me, I didn't really read the instructions prior to use, and crammed some slightly soggy parsley into the Herb Mill. And while my chopped herbs came in out in damp clumps, they still came out far better than I expected.
Once you've put the herbage in, you twist back and forth (sort of like a pepper mill) and the blades chop/slice/dice everything up without massacring your leaves.
The gizmo is easy to put together and disassemble (once you've read the instructions) for cleaning. It's dishwasher safe (should your life be so fancy... hand washable for the rest of us). They do recommend rinsing the blades, etc. off and not allowing the herbs to dry on the blades. This is, of course, not a problem for us as we are scrupulously clean, do not own a dishwasher, and never leave dirty dishes laying around for more than a nanosecond ... but really, it's pretty easy to give them a quick rinse. I've done it three times now!
See all of that finely chopped greenery? Food taste better! Dishes look fancier! The air smells cleaner! (Well, at least like parsley, in this case.)
[Oh, and that's quinoa with chickpeas, peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. Just in case you're wondering what we crazy vegans are eating. And yes, also pictured is an unintentional peak at my vintage (original to house) push button stove (circa 1961.) It'll go up on Ebay one day when we renovate to add the Custom Imperial Frigidaire Flair that is currently living the in the garage...don't hate.]
And so, I recommend to you the Microplane Herb Mill. I've used it successfully now with parsley, cilantro, dill and thyme. Can't wait for summer, when I envision grating fresh basil on anything that will be going into my mouth.
Fin.
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