Culantro Herb1 LIVE PLANT RECAO Chinese Parsley Culinary

Description

Uses Culantro can be used as you would use cilantro, although the flavor is somewhat stronger. A traditional use is to make recaito, a Caribbean sauce used as a condiment in numerous dishes. Culantro, an herb native to Mexico, Central, and South America, has a strong, aromatic scent that fills the air when you brush up against it. This easy-to-grow herb has many culinary uses in Caribbean, Latin American, and Asian cuisine. It is also very popular in Panama, Puerto Rico, and other Latin-influenced areas. Although used in small amounts, its very strong flavor is used as a seasoning in a wide range of foods, including meats, vegetables, and chutneys. It goes by many names: long coriander, false coriander, recao (Spanish), langer koriander (German), ngo gai (Vietnamese), pak chi farang (Thai), and bhandhanya (Hindi). Like its close relative cilantro, the plant tends to stretch tall and go to seed in the lengthening days of spring. While culantro and cilantro look different, the leaf aromas are similar, although culantro is stronger. Grown as an annual, it is actually biennial in areas warm enough to let it overwinter. In the Garden Growing culantro is like growing lettuce. You plant after frost in the spring, then pick individual leaves until summer’s long days and high temperatures arrive. At that point, culantro, like lettuce, will grow out of its rosette, stretching upward with a fast-growing stalk that will bloom and set seeds. Soon afterward, the plant is usually exhausted and dies. If the seeds are allowed to drop into the soil, it may reseed. However, in areas that experience freezing temperatures in winter, this tender tropical will be killed. Your best bet is to grow it in spring and cut off the flower stalk when it appears in order to encourage continued leafy growth, rather than flowers. It will eventually succeed in flowering, and when it does, the leaves will become somewhat tough and less appealing.