Coriander Seed

Coriander seed is the spice that marks Cypriot cooking out from mainland Greek cooking more clearly than any other. Afelia, pork braised in red wine with coarsely crushed coriander seed until the sauce turns dark and sticky, is built on almost nothing else, and the same wine and coriander treatment gives patates antinahtes, the cracked potatoes cooked in the same pan, their character.

It also seasons Cypriot village sausage and the cracked green olives, elies tsakistes, that sit in jars of lemon, oil and crushed coriander in almost every Cypriot kitchen. Mainland Greek cooking uses the seed far more sparingly, so its presence in a recipe is usually a fair signal that the dish is Cypriot or has come through the eastern Mediterranean rather than the Aegean.

The seed and the fresh leaf are not interchangeable and barely taste related: the seed is warm, citrusy and mild, the leaf is pungent and divides opinion. Crush the seeds coarsely in a mortar rather than grinding them to powder, since afelia wants visible cracked pieces that stay slightly crunchy in the sauce, and toast them briefly first if the jar has been open a while.