I never knew I could like liver until I had paté! Fantastic stuff, especially if you have the right combination of spices and a touch of lime or something sour. This recipe uses the wonderful combination of onions, garlic and ginger that I love so much from Burmese and other Asian dishes. Mix and match spices to find your own favorite combinations, and don’t be afraid to use a heavy hand when flavoring it up!

• 1 lb liver
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1/2 head garlic, pounded
• 2 inches ginger, pounded
• fat for frying (lard, olive oil, butter etc)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 Tablespoons ground coriander
• 1/2 – 1 c butter, soft
• 1 – 2 limes juice
• salt and pepper to taste

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Published in the column A Flirtation With Herbs in Healthy Options Magazine, New Zealand, April 2009

I was away for much of the summer, helping my sister with her newest addition to the family. As a result, my balcony garden didn’t do so well. My spaghetti squash died, my nasturtiums were killed in an aphid infestation, my calendula was ravaged by fungus and the coriander bolted. I managed to harvest about twelve tiny, incredibly delicious tomatoes, but my bumper crop was coriander seeds. Even so, there wasn’t enough to cover even a weeks worth of cooking (I love coriander), but it was fun hanging out with those clusters of gleaming green balls bouncing on the breeze in the sun amongst a delicate backdrop of frilly coriander leaves and lacy white flowers. I have a couple seeds in my mouth as I write this and the flavor is much fuller than any store-bought coriander seed I have ever tried. I have been adding them to homemade kimchi and bread. I now think of the coriander seeds as what they technically are: nutrient powerhouses and flavor-packed fruits (Fructus coriandri) not simply a dry spice.

Coriander is one of the first herbs I knew of, my mother used to grow it with dill, sweet corn and peas, occasionally a pig would get into the yard and us kids would go tearing out of the house to chase it out, squealing and snorting in terror, before it dug up our garden. My parents were missionaries, so we grew up in a village in Papua New Guinea that had lots of pigs. We later went to boarding school in Penang, where everyone seemed to eat coriander/cilantro on everything.

I was therefore quite surprised to find there are people who find the smell and flavor of coriander revolting. I remember the discovery well. I was working at Mudbrick Vineyard, out at Waiheke Island, our Sous Chef at the time was from England. He was revamping the menu and we were making a tomato, lemon-grass and coriander broth for green-lipped mussels. As I started to load in the coriander he said, “Go easy on the coriander, most people can’t stand it.” I couldn’t believe my ears, from my perspective this confirmed my preconception that the British palate was dull and unadventurous. I secretly added more when he wasn’t looking.

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Symbolising: Love, Well-Being and Intelligence

In the United States the fresh plant is called cilantro and the tiny dried fruit is called coriander. In many other parts of the world both plant and seed are called coriander.

Random Tidbits (not necessarily factual)

• One of the longest recorded histories of all the spices-one of the medicinal plants mentioned in the Medical Papyrus of Thebes (written in 1552 BC)
• According to Pliny: “the best (Coriander) came from Egypt,”and from thence no doubt the Israelites gained their knowledge of its properties.
• When the Children of Israel were nourished by manna in the wilderness they claimed it was…”as coriander seed.” And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it ; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.”
• Coriander is an ingredient in absinthe
• Used to be made into a coriander ale as the volatile oils are extracted more readily by alcohol than water.
• In 17th century Paris-it was the principal ingredient in Eau de Carnes a concoction used as liqueur or a cologne.
• The Africans are said to have called this herb by a similar name goid, which Gesenius derives from a verb gadad, signifying ‘to cut,’ in allusion to the furrowed appearance of the fruit.
• Originally in the northern countries of Europe, the chief consumption of coriander seed was in flavoring certain alcoholic liquors (gin). For which purpose it was largely grown in Essex.
• Veterinary surgeons employ it as a drug for cattle and horses.
• The Chinese believed the seeds had the power of conferring immortality.
• Turner says (1551): “Coriandre layd to wyth breade or barly mele is good for Saynt Antonyes fyre”
• Fruits and leaves posses totally different flavor and cannot be used as substitute for each other.
• It’s name (Greek koris) means bug and it has been used planted around gardens to repel bugs (it can also be made into a spray for bug repellent).
• Re-establishes harmony between the functions of blood and nerves and therefore cheers up and satisfies heart and mind.
• Was grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
• If used too freely the seeds become narcotic.
• The Hungarians called it cig¡nypetrezselyem “gypsies’ parsley”

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