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| Coriander (flowering plant) |
Coriander is an essential part of curry powder (see curry leaves) and Indian masalas as well in Northern India (garam masala, see cumin) as in the South (sambar podi, see cumin); furthermore, Ethiopian berbere, which much resembles Indian spice mixtures, contains coriander fruits (see long pepper). Lastly, it should be noted that also Latin American cuisine makes much use of them. Roasting or frying, much practiced in India and Sri Lanka, enhances the flavour.
Arabic cooking makes much use of coriander fruits, which are contained in a number of Oriental spice blends, like Moroccan ras al-hanout (see cubeb pepper) and baharat from the Gulf states (see paprika); they are also part of Ethiopian berbere (see long pepper).
Coriander leaves (also called coriander green) are popular over the most part of Asia. Used in China and India regionally (e.g., in Hunan and Maharashtra, respectively), they are indispensable in Thailand. In Thai cooking, coriander leaves are often used to add additional flavour to soups (see kaffir lime), salads (see peppermint) and curries; for green curry paste, both root and leaves are needed (see coconut). The heartland of coriander leaf usage in South East Asia, however, is Vietnam. Particularly in South Vietnam, chopped coriander leaves appear as decorations on nearly every dish (sometimes combined with or substituted by peppermint or Vietnamese coriander). They are less enjoyed in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Coriander leaves resemble European parsley leaves
in a number of ways: They have similar shape and are both best used raw,
as the flavour vanishes after prolonged cooking. In both plants, the root
has a similar flavour than the leaves, and its flavour turns out to tolerate
boiling or simmering much better.
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Coriander leaves, however, are a rare ingredient in the cooking of Western Asia; the main example is Zhoug (or zhug [زوق]), a spicy paste typical for Yemeni cookery, which sometimes also contains coriander fruits. The key ingredients are green chiles, garlic, cardamom and black pepper. Further, optional ingredients are cumin, lemon juice and olive oil. Several recipes name caraway as an ingredient, but I am not sure that this is not a translation error for cumin. All components are processed to a thick paste. Zhoug may be used as a relish, bread dip or condiment. A version of zhoug prepared with red chiles is known as shatta [شطة], which is also an Arabic name of red chiles.
The only other Western Asian cuisine using green coriander is Georgian cooking. Rather uniquely, Georgians like to combine parsley and coriander leaves do decorate their stews, or serve both types of leaves together as a fresh contrast to cheese. Often, the green power of these two herbs is augmented by dill leaves. In Georgia, cooks use not only the leaves but also the umbels with immature fruits, which have a particularly intesive flavour. In neighbouring Azərbaycan (Azerbaijan), green coriander leaves are less used, and in other countries of the region they are almost unknown.
Use of coriander leaves is very frequent in Latin America, especially México (e.g., in salsa, see long coriander, or ceviche, see lime). Another famous Mexican food relying on coriander leaves is guacamole, a spicy coarse mash from avocados, chopped tomatoes, lime juice, onions, garlic, chiles and coriander leaves. For the heat, Mexicans most often use the green jalapeño or the slightly hotter serrano (see also paprika), but actually I prefer the flavourful habanero or related chiles for that food.
The Mexican herb epazote is sometimes substituted by cilantro leaves, especially outside México; but the two plants have little in common, and I think that savory or thyme might be better suited.
Coriander leaves are most often used raw; cooking or even short frying tends to diminish their fragrance. As always, there are exceptions to that rule: In some Indian and Central Asian recipes, coriander leaves are used in huge amounts and long-cooked till they dissolve and their flavour mellows. An example is the Iranian herb sauce ghorme, see fenugreek.
Being confronted with coriander leaves for the first time, many people from Europe or Northern America find their taste repulsive. This may change after some time of forced exposure to this herb; after two months in Vietnam, I found myself unable to enjoy noodle soups (pho [phở], see Vietnamese cinnamon on Northern Vietnamese and Vietnamese coriander on Southern Vietnamese noodle soups, respectively) without coriander leaves, although I pretty much had disliked the taste when I had entered the country. Today, I shouldn’t even dream of preparing Vietnamese soups without first finding a supply of coriander green; I have, however, noticed that my guest usually have not yet reached the necessary degree of mastership over their own taste buds and, thus, prefer their soup bowls without coriander leaves.
Yet, even in Europe, the popularity of coriander leaves has increased steeply
in the last years of the late millennium (in the USA, a similar development
had taken place a decade earlier). Due to the increasing interest in ethnic
cookery, and the success of Mexican and Thai restaurants, coriander leaves are
now more appreciated in Europe than ever before. In conjunction with the changing eating
habits, new recipes are published that make heavy use of formerly hardly-known
herbs, coriander being one of them. See also rocket
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