Program Description
Event Details
Due to unforseen circumstances, this month will be asynchronous. There will be no Zoom meeting. Please email recipes with your experiments and favorite recipes to Katie at kkarkheck@wlsmail.org by Sunday April 17th. She will then compile and send an email to everyone as usual with the recipes. Feel free to include thoughts and insights or photos along with your recipes.
Each month we will provide a small amount of a different spice or spice blend from a different part of the world. Cook with the spice and join us for a Zoom discussion of what we each made. Participants will share tips, recipes and opinions of how their sampling the spices went.
Coriander is a spice produced from the round, tan-colored seeds of the coriander plant (Coriandrum sativum), which is a member of the parsley family. The word coriander can be used to describe the entire plant: leaves, stems, seeds, and all. But when speaking of coriander, most people are referring to the spice produced from the seeds of the plant. The leaves of the plant are commonly called cilantro, which comes from the Spanish word for coriander, or Chinese parsley.
Little is known about the origins of the coriander plant, although it is generally thought to be native to the Mediterranean and parts of southwestern Europe. Experts believe its use dates back to at least 5,000 B.C. References to coriander can be found in Sanskrit writings, and the seeds were placed in Egyptian tombs. Coriander even rates a mention in the Old Testament, in which the manna provided to the Jews fleeing Egypt was described as being like coriander seed. Coriander was one of the first herbs grown by the American colonists of Massachusetts.
Coriander seeds have a pleasing lemony flavor and floral aroma. The flavor goes very well with cumin and many recipes include equal amounts of the two spices. The plant's leaves and the ripened seeds taste completely different and they cannot be substituted for each other. Fresh cilantro tastes pungent, and to a certain percentage of the population, it tastes soapy.
The whole seeds are sometimes used in pickling and brining. Coriander seeds are usually toasted and ground before using; otherwise, they can have a tough texture to chew. Ground coriander is used as a spice in dishes like curry and in baked goods. Dry roast them in a pan or in the oven at a low temperature, then use a spice grinder to produce the ground coriander. (from SpruceEats)
Here are a few places where you can get recipe ideas:
https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/collection/coriander-recipes/
https://simple-veganista.com/tag/coriander/
https://cooking.nytimes.com/tag/coriander
https://food52.com/recipes/search?q=coriander