Today we encounter more nature than usual as we go full on cilan. We discuss genetic mutations, ethnobotany and have to explain jokes before meeting up with Mr Numerology AND Mr Etymology. We then attempt to describe the taste of this herb while dodging papyrus texts. In conclusion: more research is needed.
Matthew's Now but Wow! - The Loophole, Naz Kutub
Matthew's Dressing
Process lime juice, shallot, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, cumin and 1/2 tsp salt in blender until shallot and garlic are finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, add cilantro, then oil and continue to process until smooth and emulsified about 15 seconds.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
Hi, I'm Matthew and I'm Molly and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have it.
Molly 0:10
That's right. Today we are talking about cilantro or as my my child, June said, cilantro. June was like, why are you doing an episode on cilantro?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:22
Did you know that it's a food podcast?
Molly 0:25
I think June has heard about that. But I think that June may be one of those people who has the gene. Oh, we're going to talk about that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:32
Okay. Yeah, we're also joined by a special guest today we
Molly 0:35
do we have a dog. Yeah, we're recording this outside in the park. Because as we're recording this, it's late summer so the show is coming out in early November. But we are here to remind everybody that it once was summer.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:48
No, but you should imagine us like in the park with like a light dusting of snow on the ground. And we're wearing these big chunky scarves. Yeah. Oh, god. That's so cool to see and just like shivering together for over a cup of hot cocoa.
Molly 1:02
Just one color that we're sharing. Yeah. Well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:05
it's a it's sort of a Dickensian time. Okay,
Molly 1:09
okay. Anyway, so we're recording this at the park you may hear some sounds you don't usually hear and we have my not quite five month old puppy Gilbert with us. So far, so good, but let's get the show moving.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:20
And there's a there's a big ass mower around somewhere that might drop by Yeah, it's gonna be growing noise. Okay,
Molly 1:27
but this is all really fitting because I think of cilantro as I think of it as like a really refreshing flavor like the kind of thing that goes with like warm weather.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:38
Yeah, I definitely eat it year round, but I totally agree.
Molly 1:41
Yeah. Okay. Well, let's get right down to it. So also, we should say that we've done an episode on fresh herbs. Yeah, we're I'm sure we mentioned cilantro. Okay, but we're doing a full on salon. Full on salon. We
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:53
call on salon. Right salon is already a word. Nevermind. Okay.
Molly 1:57
So Matthew, tell me about your memory lane for cilantro.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:01
Okay, so I don't have any like specific like, way back memory lane. I've always liked cilantro. But like, I didn't really think about it much until probably until in like the year 2000. I think I took a Thai curry class in Bangkok, Thailand. And that's when I learned about cilantro roots. Yeah, that you know, when you buy cilantro, like in a in a western supermarket. It's going to be sold with the roots taken off but it has these kind of long white roots. They almost look like tiny parsnips they look like tiny parsnips. Yeah, yeah. And those get pounded into curry paste for Thai curries and are like an essential ingredient for like a real Thai curry. Not every type of Thai didn't realize
Molly 2:45
they get hounded out the paste. Oh, that's really cool. Okay, well, we're gonna come back to talking about cilantro roots. And maybe you could talk a little bit more about about them in a minute. Yeah, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:55
I've got I've got a little bit more memory like you want to go back and forth. Sure. I'm memory lane.
Molly 2:59
So you know, this is kind of weird. But one of my one of my most fond, like, long ago, memories of cilantro involves some sort of like, large family get together where my half siblings and their spouses were all there, and they're on the east coast. So I don't actually get to see them that much. But when we get together, we do always cook a lot as you can imagine. And I remember my sister in law, Susan had some really great cherry tomatoes and she chilled them a little bit, which I know a lot of people like I think that people are have mixed opinions about shilling tomatoes. Anyway, she killed them for like a few hours. So they were a little bit cool. And then she put them this was like a snack while we were cooking. She put them in a bowl and put like a good amount of salt on them and then just chopped fresh cilantro, and it was hot outside. And like there wasn't even any olive oil or anything. It was just really good tomatoes that were cold, salt, and then chopped fresh cilantro, and it was so refreshing to like, pop one of those in your mouth. Like while you were cooking and it was hot outside. Nice hot. I mean it sounds like nothing but it was so much better than the sum of its parts. Yeah, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:12
Okay, another cilantro memory for me is the spicy cilantro chicken at said Chinese cuisine in the International District in Seattle. So this is a it's a little Chinese restaurant that teenager the show December and I would I would always go to after Japanese school on Saturdays after I pick them up from Japanese school before they were a teenager. And so we'd go to this place and like when we first started going here, the only thing they wanted to get was the fried dumplings. And like I would get something else and then they would just like eat a bunch of fried dumplings. And then we graduated to the sharing the spicy cilantro chicken and I remember like it was right around the time they started to appreciate spicy foods and not reject foods that had a little something green in them. And so this this felt like a big stepping stone It's a really good dish.
Molly 5:00
Awesome. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:01
wait in which restaurant is that? Chinese cuisine in the International District at 12th and Jackson, okay, cool, which they keep they keep saying they're going to redevelop that block, but it so far has not happened and the restaurant is still there.
Molly 5:13
Great. Okay, good. Good news. Well, my other early cilantro memory and this was maybe middle school or high school. This was like the peak of or what I always think of as like the peak of Martha Stewart Living. Do you remember like, so my mom used to have a subscription of Martha Stewart Living and like I just I remember the format from back then. Oh, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:31
Did the calendar I mean, I'm sure she's still. Yeah, like, like all the shit Martha is going to do this month. The one
Molly 5:37
the one that I always remember is train my clematis to the trellis.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:42
Exactly. I tried to come up with like, I was gonna say, like, curry the horses.
Molly 5:47
Oh, no, it's like, yeah. Anyway, but do you remember how there used to be? Like a page in there? That was more like cardstock Oh, yeah, dead of regular glossy paper. And it would have four recipes. And they were perforated.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:02
This was like a precursor to to Martha Stewart everyday food like the Spin magazine Exactly. existed for a while. That was really good.
Molly 6:09
Exactly. So I think that this recipe that I'm thinking of was one of those ones on the little cardstock like perforated thing. And it was I think it was called spicy tomato soup with cilantro stems. Okay. And it was just a regular ol like, nondairy tomato soup. I think my mom used to buy those Pomi tomatoes in the TETRA pack. Yeah. And anyway, is a really simple tomato soup. It had red onion. And it used you cooked cilantro stems into it. Okay, and we're going to talk a little bit about why we don't often at least I don't often cook cilantro or cut it kind of goes on toward the end. But anyway, this one, you would cook the stems into it, but they would still keep a little crunch. Okay, so you would you would like cut them into like, centimeter long section. All right. And then I think it was garnished with the leaves.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:04
Like a gnocchi mushrooms. Only cilantro.
Molly 7:07
Yes, exactly. Anyway, then you would serve it with a big dollop of sour cream. And I don't really like sour cream. But as you can imagine, I mean, it was just really fresh and delicious. And it wanted the kind of creaminess of the sour cream
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:20
rubber and we did a whole episode on sour cream, and we kept having to taste it. God,
Molly 7:24
I still think about that. That was a difficult experience
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:27
in my life, except for the episode where I had to taste egg salad.
Molly 7:31
Okay, okay. Anyway, so this is this is why we why we got it done. There's
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:37
like cute dog stuff happening. There's just just out of frame. There's you can probably smell it.
Molly 7:42
There's so much cute dog and child stuff happening right now. Anyway, okay, let
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:46
me ask you this. Yeah, this may be a personal question. Oh, are cilantro and coriander the same thing? Or are they two different things?
Molly 7:53
Okay, so here's the deal. So let's clear up this confusion. So they both come from the same plant. All right, like
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:59
like hemp. And the good stuff. Yeah,
Molly 8:03
exactly. I love that you feel like you can't say the word for what it is. Okay, so anyway, so in the US, cilantro is the word that we use for the plants, leaves and stem. While Coriander is the name we use for the dried seed of the same plant.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:21
Right? But that's not the same dichotomy that's established everywhere, though, right? Because I feel like I can hear like Gordon Ramsay or somebody else chefs and coriander.
Molly 8:29
Yes. Get ready. So everywhere else in the world, pretty much. The leaves and stems are called coriander. Okay. Okay. And then the seeds are called coriander seeds. All right. So a lot of sense, right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:42
So actually, this goes back to like, there was a little bit of memory lane that I left on trod. Back when I was working on my first book hungry monkey, like teenager, the show December and I definitely wasn't a teenager then. We grew some cilantro on our balcony because I was like, I need some material for this book. Maybe we can, like grow something together. And we found that like, it was easy to grow it folded really quickly. Yeah. And then produced coriander seeds, which I'd never seen before. And then we, you know, we waited for them to like mature and we like dried them. And then like, tasted the coriander seeds that we had grown ourselves. It was it was fairly satisfying.
Molly 9:21
Oh, that's very cool. So I think also right off the bat, we should get to the conversation about why coriander or cilantro let's we're gonna call it cilantro for the purposes of this episode. Why it is that it tastes bad to a lot of people, right? Let's do Okay, so people actually perceive the taste of cilantro differently. I mean, like the way that their bodies interpret the taste is different, right? So here's the deal. It's a genetic thing. So there's a gene in the human body that's related to smell. And for some people who have this particular genetic situation, their bodies are able to detect a certain type of molecule in like Have odorant substances of cilantro. Okay, and it makes cilantro tastes like soap. So this would be like a difference in the taste receptor. Exactly, exactly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:10
I wonder if it was like on the tongue or in the brain?
Molly 10:12
I think it's, I mean, it's I don't know, where it's where the gene is actually expressed, but it sure seems like the receptors, I think, if they're able, yeah, so basically, if you're one of those people for whom cilantro tastes like soap, it's that your body is actually able to perceive a certain molecule in the odorant molecules of cilantro that the rest of us just aren't aren't noticing. So the way so those people are like, better than us. Don't tell
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:37
them, Okay.
Molly 10:38
Okay. But anyway, so here's the deal. Basically, it what's interesting to me is that this genetic variation is like unevenly distributed across the globe. Okay, so something like almost 20% of like, people of white, European descent, have this genetic variation, a little higher percentage, like 21% of East Asians have it, whereas, like, only 7% of South Asians 4% of people of Hispanic origin. So it's interesting, I, you know,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:09
okay, so I have a question about this, are these numbers the result of genetic testing, or the result of giving people cilantro and asking them, whether it tastes bad? Like those would come to excel could come to very different results?
Molly 11:24
That's correct. You know, you would think that this show would be rigorous enough that I would do evil
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:30
Principle Investigator study,
Molly 11:34
I was, this is how I got my PhD. Everybody my I have a PhD in in botany,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:39
because that's not botany, it seems like no botany ethnobotany very salutely. There, because because it seems like you could find, like, you know, a prevalence of this, of this gene, have, you know, this genotype in a population that nevertheless, you know, eat cilantro regularly, because they grew up with it as part of their cuisine. Right. So, like, I don't, I don't think you can, like necessarily tease the tease these things apart and say, like, like, you know, everybody who has, you know, has this genotype dislike cilantro, because you can learn to like things sure that, you know,
Molly 12:15
well, like I really love a lot of like, bitter flavor liquors and things which, you know, could taste like, poison to someone.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:23
Right, and like, you know, there are there different, you know, big, like, broad differences in how people perceive bitter flavors. But you can't necessarily conclude from that, that, you know, like someone is a suit, who is a super taster doesn't like black coffee.
Molly 12:34
That's right. That's exactly right. So anyway, yeah, I just discovered on the way over here this morning that I think my kid may have this genetic variation. Yeah. Because they said to me, like, oh, it tastes really soapy to me. And I said, I didn't know that. But the interesting thing is Brandon and I both like the taste of cilantro, like It tastes non soapy. So maybe it's maybe it's a massive gene. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:01
I mean, you're the principal investigator.
Molly 13:03
Yes. Anyway, so that was kind of inconclusive. But basically, basically, I still got my PhD.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:12
Your dissertation was like a page and a half. And it was double spaced.
Molly 13:17
Yeah, and I am in charge.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:21
Inclusion more research is needed. Yeah. Like my kid is about to go to college. And and like, I think I think you're you can't really get away with these tricks anymore. Because I think you probably just like submit everything like electronically
Molly 13:35
ever get away with talking about
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:39
what but I.
Molly 13:42
Oh, okay. So hold on. Now, let's
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:44
let teachers don't notice margin. No.
Molly 13:48
Okay. Let's talk about like, what this stuff is because this plant has been around. I mean, kind of like a lot of the things that we've been talking about on this show lately and forever. This plant has been around for a very long time. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:59
things like dried fruit. French.
Molly 14:05
Okay, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:06
I genuinely forget, like, immediately. Oh, my God. Came up with dry. I can't believe you did either. Because I think we did French toast like episode 80. Right.
Molly 14:15
I don't remember. What was the other one we did on the dried fruit day? I don't know. I don't know either. Okay. Anyway.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:21
Okay. So what what is cilantro and how does it fit into the beautiful family that we call the plant kingdom? Okay,
Molly 14:29
so Well, I have a lot of typos in the salon when you read this agenda on horseback. I did. I did. Cilantro was a plant that's native to and grows wild in a broad swath of southern Europe and western Asia. Okay, so this stuff has been grown for a long time. And because it's pretty widely distributed, it's really difficult to distinguish where it grows wild from where it's been introduced. Sure, cultivated. In any case, apparently Some Matthew maybe you can tell us what these are coriander merit carps.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:05
I know what that is. Okay, what's a merit cart? Merit carp is a piece of a schizo carp cheeses Come on now. Okay? So a schizo carp is a fruit type that's like like got a bunch of like hard CD fruitlets in it so like they're not typically edible so
Molly 15:23
on the coriander plant what would be America carp? Like where would it be?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:28
It's in like the part that the like Unbeliev CD producing part okay so so like an example of a mirror carp is you know you can you can visualize like a like a pair of maple keys right that would fall off a maple tree. So that's a schizo carp and if you pull them apart each one is their merit carp.
Molly 15:45
Okay, so Matthew, here's the cool thing. So 500 milliliters of coriander Mara carps were found in the tomb of tooten Common,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:54
really? Yeah, okay, isn't that well, we went to the King Tut exhibit at the science museum years ago. Did they display these Merrick carps? I
Molly 16:03
wish they had I wish they had. And because the plant doesn't grow wild in Egypt, you know, the thinking then is that it must have been cultivated by Ancient Egyptians. So that's a long time ago.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:13
That makes sense. Speaking of the Science Museum, teenager the show December and I did just go see Dark Side of the Moon at the laser dome, and it was so great. Wow. Like, I was like, maybe like three people are gonna be there. But no, like a bunch of young people were there and there's like a camp out area in the front and they like brought their their blankets and stuff and like lay down. Like, it's so cool. That's
Molly 16:33
awesome. So here's the deal. Yeah, this stuff's been around for a real long time. There's a papyrus text from around 1550 BC that mentions the use of coriander.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:43
Oh, sorry, can you excuse me, I'm getting a papyrus text
Molly 16:52
Anyway, okay, so I think this is a good point to have a little visit for Mr. Etymology.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:57
Oh, I love that guy.
Molly 16:58
Yeah, can you bring him on?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:00
No. Okay. Yes. So, the firt the word court Wait, am I introducing
Molly 17:04
you're channeling Mr. Etymology okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:12
This is 566 I predict that What's what 566 times to 111 132 I predicted by episode 1132 We're really gonna have gotten the hang of
Molly 17:26
God I can't wait until this show is just like a well oiled
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:32
Whoa, well oiled
Molly 17:34
coriander seed
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:38
MarioKart. But But look at this. Okay, Episode 566 is earring on 11 322 Which, if you lop off the last two is 566 times two numerology Wow. Mr. Numerology Okay, okay, and now I'm taking off my Mr. Numerology mask like Scooby Doo style and now I'm Mr. Etymology, okay, great.
The word coriander first showed up in English in the late 14th century, and it derives from the old French Calliandra, which comes from the Latin coriandrum, which comes from the ancient Greek word that I will not attempt to reproduce here, which, according to Wikipedia is possibly related to or derived from the word for Bedbug. Which is, which is where Miss Mr. Halsey starts to get skeptical, supposedly because of its feted, but bedbug like smell,
Molly 18:32
like when I found this on Wikipedia, I was like, do pet books have a Snoop Dogg was about to say, there needs to be some wood around here that I can knock on but I've never had bedbugs.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:42
I've yeah, I've never had bedbugs either. But like now it's like as soon as we get home to, to our podcast marital, it's gonna be full of vetted bugs. So okay, I do doubt this etymology doesn't make a lot of sense. However, having said that, as I'm sure everyone who buys the launcher knows it goes bad correctly, and it liquefies and smells terrible. It smells horrible, horrible. There's probably some liquid cilantro in my crisper drawer right now, all the time, and I don't take good care of it.
Molly 19:16
It's one of those things where you know, Seattle has really good municipal composting but if I accidentally let my my cilantro you know liquefy or rot like I can't bear to take it out of the plastic composted because it smells so bad I have to just throw the whole thing away
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:32
I know we're supposed to be like putting it like you know, standing up in some water or something. I'm not gonna do that
Molly 19:48
I want to talk about like the word cilantro Yeah, where that came in. So Cilantro is the Spanish word for Korean accents, which also draw a derives from the Latin Calliandra them and its use in American English is probably do Due to the fact that the herb is extensively used in Mexican cuisine, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:03
I mean that I think that's probably where I first encountered it. Yeah,
Molly 20:07
me too. Me too. So I mean, let's talk about how we use it. I mean, the thing is, is so the leaves from from cilantro are used all over the world and cooking all over the world. And for the most part, it's it's used raw or added just before serving. Yeah, that's usually how I use it. Yeah. Because heat diminishes their, their flavor. Yeah, we noticed that. Yeah, I think in some parts of the world, maybe India Central Asia, often Cilantro is used cilantro leaves are used in large amounts and they're they're cooked for a while, but that's not how I usually encounter them. Yeah. Which
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:44
when I when I've encountered that way, like like, you know, like a cilantro soup that has like a large amount in it. That can be very good also,
Molly 20:51
yes. So in what context do you use the leafs?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:55
Okay, so I use cilantro a lot, but not in a lot of different ways I would say. So I make I make a roasted tomatillo salsa, like all the time. And so it's just toe, Mateos Serrano's garlic, and onion and cilantro.
Molly 21:14
Okay, there's What about pico de Gaia?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:16
Do you put it in your go to guy I put it in my pico de gato yesterday.
Molly 21:20
Oh, wow, how timely Yes, how timely What about you know what I forgot about till I was gathering ideas for this show is cilantro mint chutney at Indian restaurant. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. And it always keeps a really vibrant color. I guess cilantro though doesn't necessarily turn brown the way that basil does
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:42
right it's more it's more like if it gets cooked it'll it'll lose its color. Yeah, but yeah,
Molly 21:47
what about do you put it in guacamole?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:49
I never make guacamole because I don't like avocados but your ABI reminded me recently I recently I think I said on the show like there's no way we did an avocado episode because I hate avocados. But we did.
Molly 21:59
We did. You know there's a salad that I wrote about an age ago on the blog literally the first year of doing orangette And I think it was also in my first book is a salad that has like a whole bunch of chicory type things in it, radicchio, and, and I've then avocado radishes, cilantro and Fetta Okay, I think I called it like a spring chopped salad or something. And cilantro is so good in there. It's like such a weird mix of like, bitter and like bright flavors. And it's so good. Yeah, yeah, sounds good. How would I mean, I always think about this. How do you describe the flavor of cilantro leaves?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:40
I was I was afraid you were about to ask that because I was just thinking the same thing now. I don't know. Like, you know, you hear people say like, you know, lemony or witches, which is the same as herbal means nothing.
Molly 22:52
I found a lot of descriptions of it as being like citrusy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:56
Yeah, I don't I don't think it is. It goes well with citrus but I don't think of it as citrusy itself.
Molly 23:02
I was about to say like a bright kind of grassy flavor, but it's not grassy. Yeah, I'm gonna come back around to herbal
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:11
Yeah. Nutty maybe it's nutty. No, it's not. Yesterday I was. I was making pod crop pow. Yeah, stir fry, stir fried ground meat with with lots of basil, and fish sauce and chilies and garlic. And I went out to the balcony to pick some basil and got some kind of maturing basil out on the balcony. And my hand smelled so good after I picked up basil.
Molly 23:39
Oh my god this morning when I took Gilbert out I was looking at the again we're recording this in August seriously smell my hair. I was looking at our tomato plants and I have a couple that have you know like that funny like scab that you sometimes find on like the bottom of a tomato. I'm sure there's like a name for this and I showed the funny scab funny scab. Anyway, one of the tomatoes on my my plants had one of those and I was trying to get rid of the debit of that particular fruit. Okay. I'm not sure if it's like something contagious or not.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:09
I don't know. I mean, probably not to humans. Well,
Molly 24:12
but what about other tomatoes? Oh, I don't know about that. Anyway, somebody's gonna write in and let me know what that like scabby thing on the bottom is anyway. But oh my god, I went back inside. And I don't know I lifted my coffee cup to my mouth or something and got this whiff of tomato leaves. And it was Yeah, I know what you mean. So good. Okay, let's talk about the seeds.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:34
Okay, but I do have four uses of cilantro. I mean, we've gotten to okay, we're still talking about the leaves here. Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna use some tonight you on this very night. I'm making from from friend of the show. Xiao Cheng Chows book, Chinese soul food I'm making. It's like is it shopping with that? Or the sesame sesame flat breads. I love that. You think I would? I think so. And so making sesame flat breads and and like, you know cutting them open they'll serve as like sandwiches with like red braised beef and putting a bunch of cilantro leaves on that. And as long as likely yeah them cut them to like reasonable lengths. Yes. For for getting in your mouth.
Molly 25:15
Yeah. Yeah. cilantro stems are delicious. I mean, basically, they taste like the leaves and have like a little crunch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:22
Yeah, it's just like, you don't want to get one that's like too long that that's right becomes like, like a hair in your mouth. Yeah, exactly. So it's the that's similar a similar use of cilantro to an another thing I will be making sometime soon. GWA bow the like, leaf leaf shaped. Steamed steamed buns with pork belly, like poison sauce and cilantro. Pickles, like pickled cucumbers. So good. Oh, God, that sounds fantastic. And cilantro in large quantities goes into what we at our house, just call the dressing. Which is it's a Cook's Illustrated episode Cook's Illustrated recipe.
Molly 25:59
Is this what you use on your steak salad?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:01
No, the steak salad dressing is is like a lemon like lemon juice. Olive oil, garlic and parsley. Okay, this dressing is what we use on our taco salad. So you have had this also. Oh, this is what I'm thinking is this cilantro lime vinaigrette. So you blend up. Let me see if I can do all the ingredients off the top of my head. Olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, like a jalapeno or a couple of serrano chilies. Shallots. She human. I think that's it. Have you posted this somewhere? It's gonna say like I need to this is gonna go in the show notes. Even if I posted before I'm gonna put in the show notes because like, oh, you and then you just blend it up. That's a whole recipe.
Molly 26:43
How long does it keep like couple days? Okay, okay. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:47
Oh, God That sounds great. It's so it's my favorite dress and I imagine you could put that on all kinds of all kinds of stuff. Yeah, like God tacos like I put some think it would even be
Molly 26:57
I mean again back to tomatoes because we're in tomato time but even like just sliced fresh tomatoes with that on top like drizzled on top. Oh my god. So come
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:05
on a burger recently when we had some leftovers so good. Yum. Okay, I think that's it for my cilantro usages. Okay, and let's let's talk about the seeds. Yeah, okay, because I do use those quite a bit. Yes,
Molly 27:19
absolutely. So the seeds you know, you can buy them either either whole dried seeds or ground and often when you're using the whole ones you roast to them or toast them in the pan to like release their their fragrance before you get started. Of course they go into garam masala. Yeah. And many Indian curries. Have you ever I remember coming out of an Indian restaurant like in Oklahoma City like it like one of the first places I probably ever eat Indian food. And there was a bowl of like toasted coriander seeds by the door like where there might be like a bowl of mints right? At the time. It seemed wild to me but now it makes total sense to me like what a little breath freshener yeah
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:01
they're like an ingredient in like I don't know what the what the word for it is but like like sort of like a breath freshening mix of like little crunchy bits Yes. Yes. Yeah. Which is which is always so so good. Did I tell you I don't know if this recipe the recipe is finished with cilantro or not I can't remember but you know the the famous Instant Pot butter chicken that's right. We talked about it in pretty much every episode I did I mentioned on the show the the story about that involving that at work recently. Oh, so someone someone that I work with posted and said Does anyone have a recipe they liked for butter chicken I've made the two slivers one but it but just like didn't really wasn't really you know didn't have the flavor that
Molly 28:42
you might have told this the same anecdote on last week show
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:45
Okay, great. No, never finish it. No no. No.
Molly 28:49
Because what if you didn't What if you just told me personally but the listeners don't know yet?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:54
Okay, so first the reason I was going to tell it now is because is because like I started out by being that guy who was like did you make your own gara masala Oh, because because you really should but but then it turned out that they were using four tablespoons of butter instead of four ounces of butter and then when they made it with all the butter it was much
Molly 29:13
better oh god yeah, four ounces versus four tables.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:16
So today when I'll be telling that story again. It's gonna be it's gonna become like
Molly 29:21
my puppy is chewing on our audio cord. Yes, hang on.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:24
I was I used it I did like call Molly out for for false advertising because Molly which is my horse camp and told me that she was coming back with a cowboy hat. And this is clearly a straw hat.
Molly 29:34
It's a straw hat but it's what the wranglers wear Yeah. No, it
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:37
does say son body horse. Oh, no, that's his hats. Nevermind.
Molly 29:41
Outside of Asia, you often encounter it in pickling brines. Sure, yeah, totally. Used in sausages, particularly in Germany and South Africa.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:52
Used in using chili powders. When I make like homemade taco meat, like I'll make I'll make a chili pepper otter with you know, with some ground dried chilies, ground cumin, ground coriander and I do grind my own seeds because it makes me feel like I'm doing something.
Molly 30:08
Yes, well no, it makes a difference. Sure, sort of. Anyway, coriander seeds are also used in certain styles of beer especially Belgian beer I think I didn't know that yeah, they lend kind of a you know a citrusy flavor here we are back to trying to describe this this flavor. I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:27
you know what I will buy the citrusy flavor for for under seeds more so than leaves. Yeah.
Molly 30:33
Okay. What about the flavor of the root? So when you use them in Thai curry pastes? I mean apparently the root has a deeper and like more intense flavor than the leaves.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:44
But yeah, so I you know, honestly, like, I don't remember if I tasted the roots straight straight up. And it's not an ingredient that's easy to find in Seattle. I think they probably like it like the Mekong supermarket. Here. They probably often carry them. But like even even like at a watch a Maya or m two M would probably usually be like a specialty time, especially Thai Thai, like Cambodian or LAO market probably. Okay.
Molly 31:11
Gosh, I mean, I feel like there's so many more things we could say about cilantro. But I think we've I think we've done enough. Yeah, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:17
I mean, because because like you said, it's like so widely distributed throughout the world. Like, you know, there are like 100 common ways of using cilantro that we didn't mention on the show. Yeah, for sure. That's because we're dismissing them.
Molly 31:30
Exactly. That's how you should read into everything that we don't say
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:34
yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. Yes. This this show establishes the Canon Matthew. Yes. Do we have any segments today? Oh, we do. We have a now but Wow, great.
This is a book that I just started reading that I'm very excited about, called the loopholed by Nazca tube. And you hear about this? So? That's a good question. I gotta say it was probably one of those good reads emails of like, you know, there are some new books in your genre that that you probably don't have time to read. But this one I'm making time for because I've really enjoyed it so far. So I'm gonna I'm gonna read, like just the first paragraph of the book because I enjoyed it so much. If I could make a wish it would be for less blood my life. Seriously, it's been a bit much my boyfriend broke up with me three months ago, my dad's a tired I can't wait to escape from and I've just burned this hipsters facade for the second time today. So the RB character is SIADH, who's an Indian Muslim kid who only cares about one thing in the world, which is getting back together with his ex boyfriend. And while he is thinking about this, and burning a croissant, a woman who might be a genie slams into the front window of the coffee shop gives herself a concussion and gives SIADH three wishes in exchange for helping her up to light so of course, he first wishes first for a million dollars, which she provides. And then as you might expect, things don't go entirely as planned. Yeah, yeah. So this is this is like a it's just a really fun book so far. It gets into some real issues as well. But like, you know, it's it's just got like, energy to it that I really enjoy.
Molly 33:14
So that's the loophole by Nasca tube. Yeah. And the last name is spelled K U T. UB. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Cool. Check it out. So our producer is Abby circuit tele who's really good after work for this app. My god, I'm so sorry, Abby. You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, you can rate and review our hats. If you could only see them. Yeah, yep. And you can chat with other spilled milk listeners at reddit.com/are/everything spilled milk.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:40
Yeah, can ask them like what hats are you wearing these days? Literally configured the Reddit the Reddit is really like taking a hat focus turn and we're here for it. Yeah.
Molly 33:50
Okay. Great. I'm Oh, no, thank you for listening to the spills
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:57
relating to the spilled milk. However, I have Justin Timberlake appear to say drop the just call it spilled milk. It's cleaner. I don't get it from the movie. The Social Network.
Molly 34:11
Okay. Okay, great. All right. I'm Molly while
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:14
I'm explaining the joke
Molly 34:24
here's the thing. Hold on. Oh my god. Okay, Abby, you're gonna you're gonna make this sound good. Hey, Gilbert, hit June. Could you take him for a little walk? Maybe you guys could go over to the playground together or go look at the dahlias. Actually, hold on. He's sitting now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:39
Is he ever
Molly 34:41
okay? Abby, I hope you're enjoying this part of the show. Yeah. Oh, dear. Okay, just sent off the child. The dog. They'll be back. Okay.