CORIANDER CHICKEN RECIPE
- Coarsely chop a peeled 2.5cm piece of ginger and put in a blender with four tbsp of water
- Blitz to a smooth paste.
- Heat six tbsp of oil in a wide, heavy pot, on a high heat, and brown one kg chicken thighs in batches then set aside.
- Add five finely chopped cloves of garlic to the oil. As soon as they begin to brown, turn the heat to medium and add the paste. Stir and fry for a minute.
- Add half a finely chopped green chilli, a quarter tsp cayenne pepper, two tsp cumin seeds, one tsp coriander seeds, half a tsp turmeric, a tsp salt and 200g finely chopped coriander leaves. Stir and cook for a minute.
- Add the chicken and any liquid from the bowl, 150ml water and a couple of generous squeezes of lemon juice. Stir and bring to the boil.
- Cover tightly, turn the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, then flip the pieces and cook for a further 15 minutes or until tender.
- If the sauce is too thin, remove the lid and boil over a slightly higher heat for a few minutes.
- Serve with fluffy rice and coriander leaves scattered on top.
THE INGREDIENT: CORIANDER BY CHEF AND FOOD WRITER JO WEINBERG
There are only two opinions about coriander that I’ve ever come across. You may feel that its delicate, lemony taste elevates many dishes, lifting bold flavours. Or you may think it ruins everything: curries, burritos, guacamole, all destroyed. And you wouldn’t be alone. An 18th-century naturalist observed that in rainy weather ‘anyone who pauses in a field where coriander grows will get a headache and feel nauseated’. The Romans named it coriandrum, which is derived from the Greek word koris, meaning bedbug, suggesting a rancid, unsavoury smell. Despite all this, coriander is in fact one of the world’s most widely eaten herbs. It is originally native to southern Europe and the Middle East, and the earliest records of it date back to 5000bc. It is mentioned in Sanskrit texts and The Arabian Nights, as well as the Old Testament: when the Israelites fled Egypt to return home, they ate ‘manna’ in the wilderness, which was ‘white like coriander seeds’. Hippocrates employed it in his medicines, as did the Chinese who also believed it conferred immortality upon the person eating it. In the Middle Ages coriander served as an aphrodisiac in love potions. It was one of the first spices to be cultivated by the early settlers in North America, and the Spaniards took it to Mexico.
Technically, the word ‘coriander’ can refer to the entire plant –leaves, stems, seeds – making it both a spice and a herb. All of it is edible: the seeds have an earthy pungency, while the leaves are warmly aromatic with citrus-peel overtones, and the root appears in Thai cooking to bring a sweetness to curries, counteracting strong tastes such as shrimp paste and raw garlic. The subtler leaves are used in salads, soups and as garnish, to calm saltiness, adding a cool note to spicy food. But in the end, there’s no getting around it: to some, coriander tastes fresh and green, to others it’s like bitter, metallic soap. Whichever way you swing, it’s unlikely you’ll change your mind. Research indicates that flavour response is written into the DNA, and some people are genetically hypersensitive to aldehydes, the organic compounds that lend coriander its characteristic scent. So this recipe may not be for you. For the rest of us, here’s an Indian-inspired, gloriously fragrant chicken dish that’s not to be missed.
THE BEST WINE TO PAIR WITH CORIANDER RECIPES BY MALCOLM GLUCK
It is rare in a wine writer’s life that a bottle knocks on his door and is found not only to be superb but, a little while later, to be perfect for a dish he’s been charged with partnering. That dish is coriander chicken. The wine is Il Pino di Biserno 2015 from Lodovico Antinori’s estate in Bibbona, in the Alta Maremma, which overlooks that part of the Tuscan Mediterranean called the Tyrrhenian Sea, so named for its Etruscan heritage.
History may have been on Signor Antinori’s mind when he acquired the estate, but he had certainly forgotten about it when he decided which grapes to grow there: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon are all French grapes, and thus heretical in Italy. Other local wine producers may appear to be smiling as Antinori strolls about with an even larger smile on his face, but behind it is the green-eyed monster of jealousy. Not so much for being a rebel and planting Bordeaux grapes, but for producing a red so characterful that it slips down to leave notes of coffee and chocolate, with a hint of tobacco and roasted hazelnuts. It has the finely tailored textures of taffeta and silk. And like so many Italian wines it has a great affinity with certain dishes. One of which is that coriander chicken. Il Pino di Biserno 2015 will set you back about £45 at Corney & Barrow (corneyandbarrow.com).
But is it the only wine one can choose for our dish? There have to be other candidates. And indeed, there are – exclusively, note, from the underrated Cabernet Franc grape. Tanners wine merchants (tanners-wines.co.uk) offer two excellent specimens. The first is Château du Hureau Lisagathe Saumur-Champigny 2015 (£26.50). It has a delicacy on its finish – some might say it’s reminiscent of Chateau Lafite, which has only a small percentage of Cabernet Franc in its make-up. One may scoff at such nonsense, but no two people will taste a wine the same way; our impression is entirely individual. The second Tanners wine is Chinon Les Varennes du Grand Clos Charles Joguet 2014 (£32). This has a concentrated, wild-raspberry richness, a touch of coal dust and extended finish with traces of cocoa. It fills the mouth with complex fruit flavours, superbly enhancing the experience of eating that chicken. With a wine this fine, as with Il Pino di Biserno, the sauce for the dish is already in the glass.
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