Culantro is a very important spice herb grown in Puerto Rico, Caribbean and Central America. Culantro in Spanish has other names in English like Puerto Rican coriander, Black Benny, Saw leaf herb, Mexican coriander, Saw tooth coriander, long coriander, Spiny coriander, Fitweed, spiritweed, Culantro, Recao, Shado beni (Trinidad), Chadron benee (Dominica), Alcapate (El Salvador), Cilantro habanero, Cilantro extranjero (Mexico). It is used for the preparation of stews, salsa, sofrito, seasoning herb for meat, and is sold in cans or frozen in Latin America and Asian cuisine.
Culantro is rich in calcium, iron, carotene, and riboflavin. Fresh leaves are 86-88% moisture, 3.3% protein, 0.6% fat, 6.5% carbohydrate, 1.7% ash, 0.06% phosphorus, and 0.02% iron. They are also an excellent source of vitamin A (10,460 I.U./100 g), B2 (60 mg %), B1 (0.8 mg %), and C (150-200 mg %) (Bautista et al. 1988). Therefore, the herb has medicinal usages in curing fevers and chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and in Jamaica for colds and convulsions in children. The leaves and roots are boiled and the water drunk for treating pneumonia, flu, diabetes, constipation, and malaria fever. The root can be chewed for cutting the poison from scorpion stings and in India the root is reportedly used to alleviate stomach pains. The leaves themselves can be eaten to stimulate appetite. The cilantro leaves can be used to prepare a variety salsas, gravies, barbecued foods and even appetizing drinks. My favorite cilantro delicacy is Cilantro stuffed in Cottage Cheese.
This is supposed to be the easiest recipe where you got to sandwich cilantro salsa in between two slices of cottage cheese. Then You got to slightly press the sandwich in between your pans, dip in a egg and corn flour batter and bake them in the oven at 180 degree Fahrenheit until 15-20 minutes. You can have this cottage cheese sandwich as an appetizer or as a side dish.
Thanks Melissa for your inspiring post on Culantro
