Coriander, Dhaniya, Cilantro

I love coriander. If you're a curry fan, this is how I source and use it:

Supermarket coriander has no aroma and no flavour, and to add insult to injury, tends to cost £1 or more per bunch. You might as well use grass. Best avoid.

Local Indian shops do great deals, sometimes 2 or 3 generously packed bunches for a quid.

Firstly, wash thoroughly in cold water to get rid of the chlorinated disinfectant.

I buy 6 bunches at a time, using 3 bunches as follows:

1. I chop the stems as finely as I can and pack them *tightly* into an ice tray to freeze. Once frozen, I move the cubes into a tupperware box or a recycled ice-cream tub, and keep it in the freezer. The stems have more flavour than the leaves, so discarding them is a culinary crime and should be punishable by permanent exile to a Gulag in Siberia. 

I use one or two or three cubes of the stems as a cooking ingredient, depending how many people I'm cooking for, adding it last to the onion/garlic/ginger/tomato gloop that serves as a basis for all curries. My measurement: 1 cube for every two portions. Alter as you see fit. You can also thaw a cube or two out and mix into your marinade for chicken or lamb roasts or BBQ.

2. As for the leaves, I pick them out and *very* loosely pack them into a similar box and freeze.

To use as a garnish, I scoop out a handfull and crushing them in my hands, I sprinkle them over my finished dish or salad - they melt instantaneously and spring to life, as if they were freshly picked.

I use the remaining 3 bunches to make a chutney/dip. Here's how:

3. I chuck the bunches, stems and all, along with a bunch of fresh mint, also with stems, several green chillies, a red or preferably a pink onion, the size of a fist, two spring onions - green bit included, 4-5 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of red chilli powder (or dried red chilli flakes if you want proper fire), salt to taste, 2 or 3 table-spoons of lime juice (not lemon!), a teaspoon of amchur (dried mango) powder, and a little fresh ginger into a blender and blend until I get a rough paste of an even consistency. I use some watered down natural yoghurt if the blender begs for more liquid. You can alter the ingredients to suit. 

This is stored in the fridge. 

You can use this gloop on its own as a chutney or add a hefty tablespoon of it to a little bowl of whisked natural yoghurt to make a different kind of dip.

All of the above lasts my family of 4 for 2 weeks.