Afelia

The coriander seed cracked and not ground, so it stays as whole pieces in the sauce instead of turning it muddy.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 800 g pork shoulder, in 3 cm cubes
• 3 tablespoons coriander seed
• 300 ml dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper
• bulgur or potatoes, to serve

Method

1. THE CORIANDER SEED IS CRACKED AND NOT GROUND, so it stays as whole pieces in the sauce. Three tablespoons is a great deal of coriander and the whole dish is built on it, which is exactly why the grind matters: bashed in a mortar until each seed is in two or three pieces, it releases its oil slowly over an hour and the pieces remain visible and pleasant to bite. Ground to powder, the same quantity turns the sauce into a brown muddy paste, the flavour comes out all at once in the first ten minutes and then goes flat and slightly bitter, and the texture is gritty. There is no other seasoning in this dish to hide behind.
2. THE PORK IS MARINATED IN THE WINE AND THE CRACKED SEED OVERNIGHT. Both together, in the fridge. The wine carries the coriander into the meat over twelve hours, which no amount of simmering achieves afterwards -- an hour in the pan seasons the outside of a cube and no further.
3. IT IS BROWNED IN TWO BATCHES AND THE MARINADE IS KEPT. Lifted out, patted dry, browned hard in oil. Patted dry matters: wet cubes steam and stay grey. And the marinade goes back into the pan afterwards, coriander pieces and all -- it is the cooking liquid and most of the finished sauce.
4. THERE IS NO ONION, NO GARLIC AND NO TOMATO. Pork, wine, coriander, salt. It looks like an omission on the ingredient list and it is the dish: anything aromatic added here competes with the coriander and the result tastes like an ordinary wine stew.
5. IT IS REDUCED UNTIL THE SAUCE CLINGS, NOT UNTIL IT IS GRAVY. The lid comes off for the last fifteen minutes and the liquid goes down to a few spoonfuls of dark syrupy sauce coating the meat. A pool of thin wine in the bottom of the dish means it came off too early.
6. The coriander seed CRACKED in a mortar -- two or three pieces per seed, NOT ground to powder.
7. The pork cubes mixed with the cracked coriander, the red wine and plenty of black pepper.
8. Covered and left OVERNIGHT in the fridge.
9. The pork lifted out with a slotted spoon and PATTED DRY. THE MARINADE KEPT.
10. The olive oil heated in a heavy pan over a high heat and the pork browned in TWO batches, 4 minutes a batch.
11. All the pork returned and the reserved marinade poured in, coriander pieces and all.
12. Brought to a simmer, the salt added, and covered.
13. Simmered 1 HOUR over a low heat, until the pork is tender.
14. THE LID REMOVED and the sauce reduced 15 MINUTES.
15. Cooked on until the liquid is a few spoonfuls of dark syrupy sauce CLINGING to the meat.
16. TESTED: the coriander should be in visible whole pieces and the sauce should not pool. Tasted and salted.
17. Served with bulgur or potatoes, with the pan sauce spooned over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Cyprus · All recipes