will it save: dressing(?) edition

December 30, 2019 11:00 AM

I have made a chipotle rice knockoff -- with plenty of the "dressing" of lime, lemon, salt, and olive oil to spare. I think that'll be fine for a while in the fridge, but what to do about the cilantro? Am I best off putting it in the mixture to keep, or praying to the fridge gods that it won't get slimy by itself, or should I freeze it?

Ideally I'll put the somehow preserved cilantro into another batch of knockoff rice, in a week or so, so the hope here is that I'll keep it while not extremely fresh, not slimy. I'm not sure if freezing will ruin the integrity of the leaves or not. Also -- am I kidding myself that the dressing will be okay in the fridge for ~1 week? Help!

Thank you :)

posted by snerson to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Put the cilantro in ice cube trays, fill with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and freeze. Depending on the ratio of oil to citrus, you might be able to use the dressing in place of pure oil.
posted by bgrebs at 11:10 AM on December 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

I did this a few years ago but needed a huge batch, so mixed it all with the rice (no leftover dressing), then froze the rice mixture. It worked fine. The cilantro gets a little more wilted/dark green, but the overall flavor was fine on reheat. So perhaps just make another batch of rice, mix together, and freeze the whole shebang?
posted by LKWorking at 11:33 AM on December 30, 2019

Fresh cilantro does pretty well stored upright in a jar in the fridge with the stems in a couple inches of water and a plastic bag loosely over the top; ours keeps a couple weeks this way.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:44 AM on December 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

Do Science. Put some in the fridge, see how it does. It will likely be fine. The rice will absorb excess moisture, so the cilantro should be okay. Put some in the fridge with no cilantro, and either put the cilantro in water, or wrap in damp paper towels. Put some in the freezer.
posted by theora55 at 12:51 PM on December 30, 2019

Best answer: If you have the option to do as LKWorking says, definitely do so. Make a large batch, including the rice and cilantro, and freeze it into the portion sizes you'll want later. (Refrigerate until cold then place in the freezer to avoid freezer burn.) Rice freezes wonderfully. When you're ready to eat it later, just stick it in the fridge for 24 hours to thaw slowly, then you can microwave the whole thing (with a little moisture added), until it's warm.

I've also kept cilantro less slimy in the crisper by spreading it out over an absorbent napkin or towel. Wrap it up gently and place it into the plastic bag and put it back in the crisper drawer. You want the towel to absorb excess moisture, and you want to remove it from the twist tie so it's not all bunched up. The fewer leaves touching each other, the less slime that accumulates.

(This trick works for all greens. Lots of people use paper towels, but I'm just as happy with a reusable napkin or washcloth/rag.)
posted by hydra77 at 12:53 PM on December 30, 2019

Other answers upthread are probably the best normal-human answers, but I've been mucking around with infusing things with an ISI whipper, which I thought was primarily used for alcohol only, but it really works with any liquid as an infusion medium. If you have an ISI whipper around, it's worthing trying. Cilantro works really well with tequila, and it does pretty well with vodka too. The flavor gets preserved quite nicely, and the flavor is preserved

However, since you're already using oil, I'd focus on infusing that. I recently branched into specifically infusing oils, and it works just as well. You could easily make some cilantro infused canola oil, (I've had bad luck with olive oil specifically though, I'm not sure why, it comes out really tannic and astringent). Modernist cuisine has some starting points if you're inclined.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:03 PM on December 30, 2019

I can keep a really good bundle of cilantro fresh in my fridge for a couple of weeks in a jar of water with a plastic bag (slit open - I use the plastic cone wrapper my bundles come in) over the top so it's partially covered. I try to change the water every 3 days. But some cilantro is doomed from the start, it's hit or miss with the same brand I buy every week or two - sometimes it's ready to live forever, sometimes it's bad after a few days.

But I also grow cilantro and end up with surplus. For a cilantro dressing, I blitz it in the blender with some neutral oil (I use avocado) and freeze pressed flat in sandwich bags (multiple sandwich bags, once frozen, are filed in a larger gallon bag. You can break off what you need and it thaws quickly and you can mix it into dressing.

Thirdly, microwave-dry it. Kenji approved! It's the least amount of fuss, honestly, and it reconstitutes with a nice bright flavor in dressings. It takes me a total of maybe 5 minutes to do a large quantity in batches (I have a microwave shelf kinda like this one, from Daiso, so I can do two plates at once), no oily blender to clean. I put some of it in a recycled spice jar in the fridge, the rest in a freezer bag to replenish the jar from. It will largely reconstitute itself just stirring it into good hot steamy rice.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:07 PM on December 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for the help! :)
posted by snerson at 8:12 PM on December 30, 2019