Coriander

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Moving on from tea leaves - which sound fascinating - , fags and soap, I thought it might be interesting to look at coriander.
Some love it; some hate it. It´s like marmite, or anchovies; there are no middle-of-the-road opinions.
However, it´s a herb used by more than 2/3rds of the world´s population. China, India, SE Asia, North Africa and Latin America - from Mexico to Peru. It´s also one of the very few food items used in all of its parts. The seeds, ground to make coriander powder; the leaves; the stalks , and the roots - used extensively in Thai cooking.
It is an essential herb in Venezuela. If you happen to sit at the bar in one of our many meat ( or "Spanish Tasca") restaurants, there´s a good chance that you will be given a small cup of hot broth ( might be fish, or meat, or chicken) liberally laced with coriander leaf. A sort of appetizer with a kick. A typical breakfast dish is "Perico" ( literal translation: "Parakeet") with arepas: eggs scrambled with fried peppers, sweet chile, onions, tomato and coriander. A poor man´s Fish Soup - called " Sancocho" - is packed with fish, root vegetables and coriander. A BBQ might be accompanied by a sort of Caribbean chimmichurri - oil, garlic and abundant coriander.
Coriander is used to garnish many Indian dishes, but one of my favourite combinations is a combination of coriander, mint, garlic, ginger and green chiles, blended to a pesto-like consistency, and used to flavour chicken, fish or seafood. Or simply served as a chutney.
Thai green curry would not be the same without coriander root, which adds a lemony, citric touch to the paste.
So there we are!
How do you use coriander; and do you love it or hate it?

[Amyw Profile]

Was a hater, now a lover, though I don't use it an awful lot in cooking. Must Change that, as I love lots of fresh herbs.

The first ever curry I ever made from scratch was a Thai green curry . Gorgeous and must make again soon. I love a salsa with tomatoes, chillies, coriander and squeeze of lime . Has to be fairly chunky though for my liking ....

Carrot and coriander soup is one of my favourites . Great idea for a thread. I love threads about a specific ingredient, as it can give you so many ideas

[Binky Profile]

I had no carrots, but a huge bunch of fresh coriander (6 actually) and a pack of frozen peas. Coriander Pea soup is delish!

[Alexandria Profile]

Karakoolaide,

Exemplary post .. Your cilantro pesto sounds fascinating ..

When our dear friends from Peru come to visit us (they now live in Lisbon), I always prepare Nikkei Cuisine, a beautiful dish called "Tiradito", which as you know is a fusión of Japanese Sashimi and Peruvian Ceviche.

The Leche de Tigre Salsa is prepared with: Aji amarillo chili pepper, ginger, fresh lime juice, garlic and cilantro (fresh) ..

Truly exquisite.

[Renee Profile]

Thanks for the very interesting information KK. I didn't used to like coriander leaf, but now I do. I always have a jar of ground coriander in my cupboard.

Your soup sounds interesting Binky!

Carrot and Coriander soup is also a favourite.

[Binky Profile]

It's an Australian recipe.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/pea-co ... 96cc7b754a

[Renee Profile]

Thank you for the recipe Binky. It sounds lovely.

I used to have a collection of the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks and have re-purchased the Tomato cookbook. I had to buy a second hand one, because they are out of print now.

[Pampy Profile]

I'm not a great lover of fresh coriander. I can cope with it in a salsa or as a garnish but only if it isn't the predominant flavour.

[Alexandria Profile]

Interesting. I have an old old book from Australia on Spanish Regional Cuisine.

I am not home, so I do not remember the author´s name but we were in Sydney & Melbourne many years ago, for my parent´s anniversary with my inlaws.
It was in the early 1990s.

And we bought the book at a 2nd hand bookshop.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Someone on TV (Ching?) recently said that the Chinese don’t in fact use much coriander, and that many Chinese have the genetic thing of finding it tastes soapy

But there’s certainly a lot of it in SE Asia

Burmese food uses a lot of coriander. Tin Cho Chaw in Hsa Ba cookbook has a recipe for a Burmese pesto-like sauce, which mercifully contains no cheese, just coriander, lime, chilli, fish sauce, garlic infused oil, bit of sugar salt & pepper. She uses it on noodles, but I’ve had something similar on fish too

[jeral Profile]

I dislike the perfume smell and the leaf makes everything taste funny, sort of off and uneatable to me even though others are chomping away happily on the same thing. It used to puzzle me as to why until it dawned on me when it became so popular a couple of years ago.

The ground seeds on the other hand have a pleasant orangey flavour so a jar of that is always in my spice drawer. That still puzzles me - why the taste is so different from the leaves.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Nice herby topic!
I've got something in my recipes that I know I really liked, and have called it home made harissa.
Whether it's anything like harissa, I cannot remember.

But I've cooked spiced chicken pittas with it in the past. I tend to buy the jar nowadays.

Blitz 4 deseeded red chillies, 4 fat cloves garlic, plenty fresh chopped coriander or 2 tsp ground coriander, juice & zest of one lemon, extra virgin olive oil






Plus the fragrant filling for vegetarian dosa, or samosa

cooked maris piper potatoes
peas, a little turmeric, pinch of cumin, black mustard seeds, & fresh coriander

[Binky Profile]

I agree with jeral about the puzzle of coriander leaves and seeds tasting totally different. Have you ever tried coriander chocolate for instance?

It is (or was) sold in the German Christmas markets and is absolutely gorgeous and moreish. I have never seen it for sale in the UK.

[jeral Profile]

I haven't seen coriander chocolate. I wonder if karadekoolaid knows of similar uses for the seeds - I'm vaguely connecting the idea with choc as a flavour enhancer in chilli.

[Renee Profile]

Jeral, I've used a small amount of chocolate in the past when making chilli con carne and it works well.

[jeral Profile]

Yes and in mole too IIRC. Whether coriander seeds figure or how prominently in those dishes is the unknown to me.

I've seen choc in an extremely hearty full-on flavour beef and stout slow cooked dish too. Regretabbly it's something I haven't tried purely due to being non meat and can't imagine it with fish or veg.

[Joanbunting Profile]

The seeds are essential for things like carrot and cooriander soup - a long-time favourite and also, surprisingly, ratatouille. Most impotantly of you are me - after juniper, in gin The difference it makes is quite astonishing and there is something magical about grinding the seeds in a pestle and mortar. Its one of my favourite kitchen tasks.

Fresh in salsa's especially with avocado, chilli, gucamole and I couldn't do many Indian dishes without adding lots of it.

[Binky Profile]

It looks like you can still buy Coriander chocolate at Xmas, made by Lindt (but this one in the photo has cinnamon in it, and I know that bars with coriander only are or were available).


https://images.app.goo.gl/Djm74dgvVX69y9mP8

[Amyw Profile]

Yes and in mole too IIRC. Whether coriander seeds figure or how prominently in those dishes is the unknown to me.

I've seen choc in an extremely hearty full-on flavour beef and stout slow cooked dish too. Regretabbly it's something I haven't tried purely due to being non meat and can't imagine it with fish or veg.

I imagine if you made a root veg stew with stout in it , you’d get a similar result or possibly large mushrooms

[Binky Profile]

Cocoa is a bean, and it's only sweet because we add sugar to our confectionary. I think the bean on it's own, i.e. not sweet, might have been used in South American vegetable cooking. I will try to find some recipes.