Cilantro Weekend!

[Clutch Munny]

Apologies to liv, who hates the stuff. But I like it, especially when it's fresh. Having bought some on Friday I proceeded to make two favourite recipes Sat and Sun nights. For any other FoC (Friends of Coriander) here's the past weekend's dinner menu.

Cuban Steak Salad

1 kg (around 2.5 lbs) top round steak or sirloin, cut fairly thick
1 red onion
1 red pepper, seeded
1 green pepper, seeded
5-10 radishes, depending on your fondness for radishes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp Tobasco sauce
1 clove minced garlic
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
4-6 tbsp lime juice (2 or 3 limes)
Salt and cracked black peppercorn


1. Season the meat all over with salt and peppercorn. Grill it over a hot fire You want it ideally to turn out dark brown and crusty. 4-6 min per side ought to do it. Remove the meat from the grill and let it stand a few more minutes.

2. Cut the meat into dice-sized pieces. That’d be Monopoly dice, not the big fuzzy kind.

3. Put the diced meat into a large mixing bowl. Dice the red and green peppers, and the onion; slice the radishes very thin; mix all of this with the meat.

4. Add all the remaining ingredients except the lime juice and toss well.

5. Just before serving add the lime juice and toss again. Serve with rice, beans, and fried plantain if you got any. Yum. This is piquant without really burning your face off.


Ping Gai Chicken

2 kg (5 lbs) boneless chicken thighs or breast

Marinade:
1 bunch fresh coriander, roots attached, washed (obviously)
4-6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp whole black peppercorn
3 tbsp oyster sauce (if you or your digestive tract don’t like the fishy stuff, just use an extra tbsp or so of each of the next two ingredients)
2 tbsp each of soy sauce (I use the extra dark stuff for marinade but any will work) and vegetable oil

Dipping Sauce:
1 cup water
1/4-1/2 cup white sugar
3 sprigs fresh coriander, roots removed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp each of lime or lemon juice and Asian chili-garlic sauce

1. Make marinade. Put coriander into food processor with garlic and peppercorn and finely chop it all up. (Or by hand, if you’re into that.) Add liquid marinade ingredients and process again until smooth. Wash your food processor.

2. Cut thighs into thirds, or breasts into finger-width slices, and place in a glass dish. Cover in the marinade for at least an hour, longer if possible. Basically you want large bite-sized pieces.

3. Make dipping sauce. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Keep at a simmer for 10 minutes or so, until the sugar water is reduced a bunch and gets syrupy. When cool, add to food processor with coriander, garlic, vinegar, lime, and chili-garlic sauce. Then whip it. Whip it good.

4. Grill or broil chicken at med-high heat for 12-15 minutes, turning the pieces once if you can be bothered. (It’ll cook fine anyhow, though; the pieces should be fairly small.)

5. Serve with rice and dipping sauce.

6. Yum. Spicy, but in that black-peppery way.

[livius drusus]

Man, both of those would be delicious if it weren't for the you know what. Oh well, I'm glad you had such a successful culinary weekend.

[Ensign Steve]

liv, what the hell is the matter with you?

[Clutch Munny]

Thanks for the kind thoughts, liv. I expect you could run the first recipe without the coriander -- be curious to see what that was like. For the second recipe the Vitamin C is probably essential.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by the Ensign

liv, what the hell is the matter with you?

It's not my fault it tastes like lemon dishwashing detergent. But enough about me. Go tell Clutch how delicious his cooking is. Shoo.

[Ensign Steve]

You know I don't cook. Why don't you rub it in?

You shoo and go find something else under the kitchen sink to guzzle.

Looks delicious, though, Clutch. I love a steak salad.

[Ronin]

Carry on...

[Further comments overwhelmed my redundancy limit]

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

Thanks for the kind thoughts, liv. I expect you could run the first recipe without the coriander -- be curious to see what that was like. For the second recipe the Vitamin C is probably essential.

You know, I was just thinking that the first one would turn out better than the second without the cilantro, but I'm not really sure why I thought that. You don't think the lime and lemon juice in the chicken would provide sufficient Vitamin C goodness?

[Skep]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

It's not my fault it tastes like lemon dishwashing detergent.

If it even tasted that good to me, I'd probably eat it on occasion. To me, it tastes like diesel fuel or heating oil. There is no recipe calling for cilantro that cannot be improved by leaving it out.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

You know, I was just thinking that the first one would turn out better than the second without the cilantro, but I'm not really sure why I thought that. You don't think the lime and [or] lemon juice in the chicken would provide sufficient Vitamin C goodness?

The problem is that the Vitamin Coriander is much more the dominant flavour in the second dish. There's a bagful of other flavours going on in the first one. The second dish without coriander is mostly garlic and black pepper. Which might be a little lean.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Not that anyone is necessarily empowered to reconize me as well regarding this "topic"...but...

CILANTRO is NASTY SHIT!!!!

PS...FyI...IMHO...Btw...and...my 2cents...etc...'Fuck all recipes that contain that stinky (heave) crap'...


Carry on...

Originally Posted by Skeptoid

If it even tasted that good to me, I'd probably eat it on occasion. To me, it tastes like diesel fuel or heating oil. There is no recipe calling for cilantro that cannot be improved by leaving it out.

Speaking of leaving out... you left out livius' words of wisdom:

Originally Posted by livius drusus

But enough about me... Shoo.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Looks delicious, though, Clutch. I love a steak salad.

Next weekend I'll do it again. Come over around eight.

[Ensign Steve]

yum yum! You bet I will!

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

The problem is that the Vitamin Coriander is much more the dominant flavour in the second dish. There's a bagful of other flavours going on in the first one. The second dish without coriander is mostly garlic and black pepper. Which might be a little lean.

Oh. Duh. That Vitamin C. Thank you for graciously holding up a veil to mask my not getting of it.

Good point about the flavor bonanza in the steak salad recipe. Would you mind terribly if I toasted that cumin before pestling it?

[viscousmemories]

I love cilantro. I'll try at least the top recipe this week, maybe both.

[Ronin]

[edited for consistency]

Next time I get like that, someone please take a moment and just...

[RevDahlia]

Yay, cilantro! (Please do not poop on me, Ronin, I just had this dress dry-cleaned.)

I have grown much more temperate in my use of the demon weed, but I do love it. I hated it for a long time, and then I had a craving for it and bam, I was addicted. I no longer put it in everything, but the following recipe truly needs cilantro. It would be muddy and unctuous without that grassy, citrusy, biting top note.

Southwest-y Bean and Corn Soup

Olive oil
Onion, celery, garlic, chopped
Chipotle chili(es) in adobo, minced
Cumin
Chili powder
A bay leaf

Low-salt chicken broth
A potato or two, chopped into small chunks
Canned black beans, rinsed (otherwise they will make everything a filthy color)
Frozen corn, or fresh corn off the cob
S&P
A big, fat fistful of minced cilantro

All amounts are variable, depending on taste and the number of people you're feeding.

Heat oil in a pot. Sweat first block of ingredients over low heat in oil, covered, until vegetables have gone limp. Put in the chicken broth and heat to a simmer. Add potato and simmer until tender. Mash everything vigorously with a potato masher. Add beans and corn and simmer for a little while. Correct seasoning. Add cilantro at the last minute. Serve with grated cheese, tortilla chips, and a lump of sour cream or lowfat plain yogurt on top.

Okay, if you must make this without cilantro you can substitute the juice of one lime. But it will not be nearly as exciting.

[MsTirius]

I love cilantro, I cook with it quite often, here's one of my favorite recipes

Mango Salad
1/2 head of cabbage shredded
2 carrots shredded
2 ripe mangoes peeled and cubed
1/2cup cilantro chopped
1/4cup rice wine vinegar
2TBS sesame oil
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts
salt and pepper to taste

Toss it all together and serve.

[livius drusus]

That looks like a veritable riot of flavors, MsTirius. It's not for me, I'm afraid, but even just as observer I can see how your Mango Salad would be scrumptious.

Welcome to FF!

[Clutch Munny]

Thanks Rev and MsTirius. I see both these recipes in my near future.

[viscousmemories]

So I read through the ingredients to figure out what to shop for, and I get to the part about fresh coriander and think, "Fresh coriander? Hmm... I wonder where I can find fresh coriander. What is it and what does it even look like? Will I find it with the spices or near the vegetables? ..."

Yeah. Then a few minutes later I think, "Wait a minute! This whole thread has been about cilantro, and there's no cilantro in the recipe! Have I missed the underlying joke throughout this entire thread? Do I look like a complete idiot?"

I suppose I do now.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

So I read through the ingredients to figure out what to shop for, and I get to the part about fresh coriander and think, "Fresh coriander? Hmm... I wonder where I can find fresh coriander. What is it and what does it even look like? Will I find it with the spices or near the vegetables? ..."

Yeah. Then a few minutes later I think, "Wait a minute! This whole thread has been about cilantro, and there's no cilantro in the recipe! Have I missed the underlying joke throughout this entire thread? Do I look like a complete idiot?"

Nope. I do, for mixing the terms like that.

As a grand cosmic punishment for my thoughtlessness, I see that the powers of the universe have transformed all my chickpeas into garbanzo beans, and my aubergine into eggplant.

[viscousmemories]

Just be grateful your anise hasn't turned into fennel...

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Just be grateful your anise hasn't turned into fennel...

Y'know, there's a lot of possible replies to that.

This being a Food thread, though, I'll restrain myself.

[viscousmemories]

Okay I bought all the ingredients for the first recipe today (except radishes. I'm pretty sure I hate radishes). I'll make it tomorrow night and report back here.