Lountza

Rolled in cracked coriander after the wine and before the smoke, so the crust is coriander and not salt.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

2 pork tenderloins, about 500 g each
60 g coarse salt
750 ml dry red wine
4 tablespoons coriander seed
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
wood chips, for smoking

Method

IT IS ROLLED IN CRACKED CORIANDER AFTER THE WINE AND BEFORE THE SMOKE, so the crust is coriander and not salt. That order is the whole dish and it is what makes a slice of lountza recognisable across a room: a dark red disc with a thick green-brown rim. The salt comes first and is rinsed OFF; then a week submerged in red wine, which stains the meat through and is where the colour comes from; then the surface is patted dry and pressed hard into cracked coriander seed; and only then does it go into the smoke, which fixes the crust onto the meat. Coriander applied before the wine washes straight off. Applied after the smoke it has nothing to stick to and falls off on the board.
THE CORIANDER IS CRACKED AND NOT GROUND. Bashed in a mortar or under a pan until each seed is in two or three pieces, no finer. Ground to a powder it makes a paste with the damp surface and goes bitter in the smoke; cracked, it stays as a distinct crust you can see and bite.
THE WINE IS DRY AND RED AND THERE IS ENOUGH TO SUBMERGE. A whole bottle for two tenderloins, in a narrow container so they are covered. Half-covered meat cures two-tone, and the line never evens out. A sweet wine leaves it tasting faintly of port.
THE SMOKE IS COLD AND THE MEAT MUST NOT COOK. The chips smoulder in a separate chamber or at the far end of a covered kettle, and the meat sits where the air is barely warm -- under 30°C. Four to six hours. Hot-smoked, the outside cooks and sets into a hard grey shell while the middle is still raw cured meat.
IT IS SLICED THINNER THAN SEEMS POSSIBLE. Across the grain, almost transparent, with the sharpest knife in the house. Cut thick it is chewy and the coriander overwhelming; at a millimetre it is tender and the crust is a rim rather than a mouthful.
The tenderloins trimmed of silverskin and rubbed all over with the coarse salt.
Covered and refrigerated 24 HOURS. Liquid will be drawn out.
RINSED THOROUGHLY under cold water -- the salt is a cure and not a seasoning, and it comes off.
Put in a narrow non-reactive container and covered COMPLETELY with the red wine. Weighted if they float.
Refrigerated 7 DAYS, turned once a day.
Lifted out and PATTED DRY. The wine discarded.
The coriander seed and peppercorns CRACKED in a mortar -- into two or three pieces each, NOT ground to powder.
The tenderloins pressed hard into the cracked spice on all sides, so it beds into the surface.
COLD-SMOKED 4 to 6 HOURS at under 30°C. The meat must not cook.
Hung in a cool airy place 3 DAYS to firm.
TESTED: the outside should be dry and firm and the centre still yielding. Sliced ACROSS the grain, almost transparent.
Keeps 3 weeks wrapped in the fridge. Eaten as it is, or griddled briefly and put in a bread roll with halloumi.

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