Parsley and Coriander: winter salads
This is my first entry to the Weekend Herb Blog and I want to thank Scott at Real Epicurean for being our host and Kalyn at Kalyn’s Kitchen for being the creator and instigator.
I wish I could be more original for my first entry because I suspect parsley and coriander are the most popular herbs in the world. But with good reason. Harold McGee notes that Parsley and Coriander both belong to the Carrot Family. Parsley was first used for medicinal purposes by the Greeks and is included in Homer’s Odyssey as part of Circe’s lawn. The name derives from the Greek petroselinum which means rock-celery. Although in the U.S. it is used notoriously as a garnish, throughout the Middle East, India, and Africa it assumes the role of star in salads and as Persillade and Bouquet Garni in France.
The use of Coriander goes back to 5,000 B.C. Cilantro is the leafy herbage of Coriander. Its often used in Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Indian cuisine, and just about anywhere fusion has run amok. I add at least a pinch of Coriander anytime I use Cilantro, I think it boosts the flavor and negates any “soapiness”. Try it and see what you think.
In the winter, when our salad life is a vast plain of emptiness, we eat salads based on these herbs. I’ll combine almost anything with them: Cucumber, Daikon, Carrots, Avocado, Radish, Grapefruit, Scallions, Jalapeños, Green Apples. I always dress these salads with just Rice Vinegar right before I plate dinner and then by the time we’ve finished, the salad is perfectly mingled and ready to eat. GH jokes that without Parsley and Cilantro we would get probably get scurvy in the winter…but he is quite the cornball.
Illustrations from: Franz Eugen Koehler: Koehlers Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen und kurz erläuterndem Texte (1883-1914) Gera - Germany
He ain’t heavy…he’s my ham
I know you know…I love pork. I can give up every other type of meat, grudgingly, but I can do it. Nothing comes between me and my pork. I grew up in Illinois on a hog farm and we ate a lot of pork. I once went to the National Pork Congress. I’ve cleaned out pig feeders while the pigs attempted to chew on my hair, I’ve played with baby pigs, and I think at one point we even attempted to ride a pig…the pig would have none of it.
When I struggle to come up with something for dinner I usually try to keep it simple. This is the other half of our Christmas ham from Willow Creek Farms. This dinner is so easy and perfect because all the elements are simple, quality ingredients, full of flavor. Roasted ham, ginger garlic green beans, and grapefruit and blood orange wedges. Prep was simple and easy and so was clean-up. Everyone left the table happy and now we have some leftover ham to nosh on.
Black and white…delicious duality
One thing everyone in this family knows now is that since I’m writing a food blog you may or may not be served the “house standard”. As in:
“I’m making brownies but it isn’t the same recipe I’ve used and loved for the past 14 years but I’m sure we’ll love it!”
The camera pans to the face of my teenage son who is a texture fascist “Right, Mom.”
Stop. It just became painfully obvious that we need a punctuation mark that is the opposite of the exclamation mark…would ¡ work? Yes, it does look like a lowercase i but it’s supposed to be an upside down !. Doesn’t really work does it? Hmmm…I’m looking for something that clearly denotes a lack of belief or interest in anything an adult says. Where is the !’s evil twin when you need it?
That is the nature of the universe, isn’t it. Duality, yin and yang, black and white. Ah now I see.
Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness is cordial enough to host a black and white food blog party and I’m there with my Julia Child and Dorie Greenspan Brownies from the Baking With Julia cookbook and a Tall Double-shot Redeye with hand cranked cream foam produced by genius husband.
Will I make these brownies again? No.
Am I posting the recipe? No! I’m too lazy and it was bad enough to go to such work for the product but to actually write down that procedure would be insane. Around here if we want good brownies we NOW know that the recipe should be the one on the back of the Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate box. Its good, its easy, and only one bowl is messed and everyone, including the texture fascist, likes them.
They look good, they tasted good, but they were way too difficult and messy.
