BlogHer - And the Favorite Herb Is . . . - Comments

Sounds fabulous.

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 21:47:48 -0500

Sounds fabulous.

I fully support the idea of innovation in recipes based on your mood and what ingredients you have on hand. That's what all good cooks do, IMHO.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

cilantro pesto cream sauce

radiogrrrl — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:25:34 -0500

It's soo simple. But be advised that I am a "riffer", meaning that my recipes vary depending upon my mood and what ingredients I have on hand. I learned this from the chef at Frito Misto in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades in California. Basically, you approach it like a basil pesto. I like a lot of garlic, you might like less, but I use 5 (!) cloves of garlic in the food processor first, then I add, two bunches of well-washed cilantro. If you leave it a little damp you can use very little oil. I leave some of the stem on for added flavor, just cut off the woody ends and any skany-looking parts. Pulse until, well, pesto-ized. (Oh, and you can do this in a regular old school blender as well, as long as you keep pulling the blended cilantro from the bottom and push down the unchopped leaves.) Add a tablespoon of olive oil to make things a little more fluid, but be careful not to make it into cilantro paste.

Add a little bit of half and half to the pesto and give it a quick whirl to get all the good stuff off the sides of the processor bowl.

Now, pour the mixture into a small sauce pan, add a little more half and half until you get it to a soupy state. Season and cook it down until you get a nice creamy concoction.

Fabulous when tossed with linguine and shrimp or even Italian sausage. I also use as a cold sauce for poached salmon.

www.raecheldonahue.com

This one too

Kalyn Denny — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:40:36 -0500

Would love to have this recipe for the garlic/cilantro pesto cream sauce too.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Recipe please

Kalyn Denny — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:39:47 -0500

Will you give us the recipe for the tomato, feta, cilantro pasta?

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

cilantro

radiogrrrl — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:19:51 -0500

I love cilantro and make a garlic-laden cilantro pesto cream sauce for pasta that I adore. However, that hating cilantro thing does come up from time to time, and a lot of people say they are allergic to it. Two recent guests who told me they were allergic to cilantro also in the next breath asked me if I would make that basil sauce I made the last time they lunched with me. It was cilantro. I didn't tell them. My favorite herb is marjoram, because, as Monty Python said about the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects it!

Cilantro - thumbs up

Melinda Joe — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:48:51 -0500

Way up! I love it and use it all the time. I just used it last night as a garnish on both my daikon tofu soup and my beef and taro root black bean sauce stew.

I also make a fresh tomato, feta, cilantro pasta that rocks. It's simple, delicious, and full of sass.

I use dried coriander in curries and soups, potato croquettes, lots of things. I agree that it's great with eggplant, especially with a little cumin.

For me it's a toss up

DesiGal — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 09:36:21 -0500

For me it's a toss up between cilantro and basil. I'd always grown up eating basil in minute quantities when I was sick - cold, cough, fever, because it was supposed to have healing properties. When I got here and saw how it can be used in pizzas or pesto sauce, I became an instant fan.

My biggest problem with cilantro is how difficult it is to store it. And dried I think it tastes weird. I use coriander seeds sometimes for that extra punch in some dishes, especially with eggplant which goes really well with coriander.

Great thread Kalyn.

Priya Ramachandran
Blogher Contributing Editor - South East Asia
Words on Water

Yes, but . . .

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:28:09 -0500

Kperfetto, do have to say that I have used dried cilantro quite successfully in marinades. When it's in something like that with liquid, it flavors it and kind of disintegrates into the liquid. Otherwise, I agree.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Hi Suebob

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:25:16 -0500

Wow, I love the sound of this recipe. If's funny because I often don't have tomato paste but this weekend for some reason I grabbed a couple of cans. I wonder if I could make this using the cilantro stems if I've used the cilantro and can't stand to throw away the stems (which some people consider the best part I hear).

LOVE Martha Rose Shulman.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Cilantro

kperfetto — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:20:16 -0500

...only if it's fresh, not dried. Dried cilantro tastes like yesterday's tea. Sort of. The fresh doesn't keep well, as the blogger said.

Rage Is Good Food

Coriander Soup recipe

suebob — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:16:19 -0500

This is modified from Martha Rose Shulman's wonderful book "Mediterranean Light." It is amazing because it packs full cilantro flavor without any evidence of cilantro in it!

Coriander Soup
2 Bunches of cilantro, rinsed well and tied together with kitchen twine
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large chopped brown onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 32-oz can chopped tomatoes in their juice
4 cups water
4 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper
Pinch cayenne
Juice of a lime

Saute onion in olive oil until it is tender. Add garlic, cumin and paprika and saute for a minute. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the water, the tomato paste, the bunches of cilantro, salt and pepper.

Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, covered.

Remove the cilantro bunches and puree the soup with a food mill or in a food processor or blender. Add cayenne and lime juice. Stir. For prettiness, you can serve each bowl with a sprig of cilantro.

Ahem

jedsundwall — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:48:40 -0500

It's not a cilantro haters documentary. I try as hard as possible to remain cilantro agnostic in my reporting. I want to represent both sides of this crucial debate. You see the trailer for it here.

What's most important though is to recognize Kalyn and her crew for the great success that weekend herb blogging has become!

Oregano

heivilinj — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:37:49 -0500

I know it's cliched but while I do like cilantro, I adore oregano.

However the favorite herb greatly depends on what style of food I'm making. Cumin is a favorite also. :)

Jim Heivilin

Cumin and cinnamon

Cassandra — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:49:57 -0500

are the two spices I could not do without. Debra and I must have *very* different genes! :)

Cass
Patience is a virtue that takes too long

A cilantro convert!

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:26:15 -0500

Sarah, how nice to hear that you're a cilantro convert. Possibly that disproves the gene theory if people can be converted? Or maybe you had a recessive gene? I Love thyme too!!

Sassymonkey, I'm also not that wild about dill, its ok, but will never be in my top ten. But, I do like ranch dressing, go figure.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

And the Favorite Herb Is . . .

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:35:13 -0500

What if food bloggers who participate each week in blogging about herbs were forced to make a choice about their very favorite herb. Which herb do you think would be the favorite?

No one was more surprised than I that basil didn't win when Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started as a joke on my own blog, celebrated one year of blogging about herbs and we asked food bloggers to vote for their favorite. With exactly 50 votes cast, it was cilantro (also called coriander leaf) ahead of basil by six votes.

Cilantro? The herb that some people hate so much there are entire blogs, and even a cilantro-haters documentary about it.

Here are a few recipes from herb bloggers who voted for cilantro:

Anna from Morsels and Musings shares two recipes, Potatoes Coriander and Coriander and Yoghurt Chutney.

Karina from Gluten-Free Goddess shares her New Mexico version of Roasted Corn Chowder with Cilantro.

Sher from What Did You Eat sends a great sounding recipe for Asian Salmon-and-Rice Soup with Cilantro.

Coriander Chutney, Chutney Sandwiches, and 10 Things to do with Coriander Chutney is the fabulous collection of recipes from Nandita of Saffron Trail.

Mae from Rice and Noodles sends an impressive collection of past recipes as well as a new recipe for Oriental Chicken Sausage rolls, all featuring yummy coriander leaf.

Not a cilantro lover? There's a great collection of recipes for other herbs included in Favorite Herb Recipes from Great Cooks Around the World.

Contributing editor Kalyn Denny from Kalyn's Kitchen also voted for cilantro, but tried very hard to remain neutral when counting the votes.