I still can’t really describe what coriander tastes like to me. I always expect it to be sweet, since so many of those sticky summer ales boast that they’ve been brewed with coriander, lemongrass, and orange peel. Really they just taste like Budweiser with a lime squeezed in it.
But the other night, I followed Isa Chandra’s recipe for Nirvana Enchiladas. I am really bad about cooking on an electric stovetop, and my new apartment is presenting challenges in the stovetop cookery department. I wanted to toast the cumin and coriander seeds (which seemed like such a nice, earthy base for a tomato sauce), but I tried to do something else at the same time and the seeds may have…overtoasted a little bit. I didn’t burn them!
Everything ended up tasting really amazing. I’m totally obsessed with my immersion blender even though it spits hotass droplets of soup (or sauce, whatever) all over the kitchen every time I use it.
Just trying to get the lumps out! And crush the cumin & coriander seeds. I was right about that earthy sauce though. Since most of my attempts to make my own tomato sauce have been abysmal failures, I’ll definitely recycle the whole toasting seeds thing next time I foray into tomato cookery.
Jesse Rice-Evans 