Cooking With Banana Leaves

I have been obsessed by banana leaves lately. It is reminiscent of my childhood since banana trees are all over the islands and getting the leaves to serve as plates is very much a common thing. They are very sturdy to hold food and is very much the idea of organic dining since they are biodegradable and can serve as good fertilizer. But what one does not discuss much is that banana leaves are a source of great food flavoring since it is earthy in aroma and when infused in cooking, makes the fish, meat or even staple such as rice, impart a secondary dimension to the palate. There is this leafy flavor that transforms to somewhat woodsy when subjected to heat. It is this flavorsome quality of the banana leaf that could be explored in so many ways.

Banana leaves.

I happen to have a bunch of frozen banana leaves which I bought from the Asian store months ago. The nice thing about them is they really do not spoil and never degrade with time. Thawed and when used, they still impart the same kind of aroma just as when they are picked fresh from the tree.

Frozen banana leaves from the store!

Now to those of you who live in the suburbs of Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, you may probably ask what Asian store sells banana leaves. I found out that ASSI - a chain of Korean grocery stores - sells them in their refrigerator aisle. If you are in Philadelphia of course, get them through any store in Chinatown.

That said, the next two recipes demonstrate how one can cook using banana leaves as a flavoring agent. Meanwhile, try this next tip. Next time you are going to eat steamed rice, wrap the cooked rice with banana leaves then steam them again on top of a steamer, with a vigorous water boil underneath. The leaves will get "cooked" by the heat, imparting that flavor I'm speaking of. Likewise, with the rice served with a banana leaf wrap, one can set these on the table upwrapped, using the leaf as plate. And after you're done, throw the leaf away - no dishwashing required!

Coconut Ginger Salmon - Infused with Banana Leaves

The original of this recipe is that the leaves fully wrap the fish which contains ginger, onions, grated coconut, salt and pepper. Then it is boiled lightly in a pan until the fish is done and flaky. In this version, I decided to bake the salmon on a bed of banana leaf in the oven's high heat along with the marinating spices and in the final minutes, add a generous helping of coconut milk. As the banana leaves toast, the resulting fumes will infuse the fish giving it a woodsy flavor that is complementary to the rich coconut milk and the pungent ginger.

• 1 long filet of salmon or steelhead
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut to thin slivers
• 1 small yellow or red onion, peeled and sliced or chopped finely
• ½ can of thick coconut milk
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 elongated green chili - sliced thinly if desired (gives a kick!)
• 1 banana leaf

Preheat oven 425 degrees.

Line a jelly roll pan with a whole wet banana leaf taking care not to tear it in smaller pieces allowing leakage of the coconut milk to be added later. However, if it does leak, this is likewise fine but you need to spoon out the coconut milk later transferring it to your serving dish.

Salt and pepper the fish and place on top of the banana leaf. Spread on top the onions, ginger and chili (if desired).



Steelhead salmon - salted, peppered, gingered, onioned

and may adda bit of sliced green chilis for a kick

Bake the fish on the middle rack for the next ten minutes. For all you smoke happy people out there, you can use the top rack knowing that the heat is rather intense and may result in mild burning of the leaf which imparts the infusion. Transfer the fish to the middle rack if this is a concern.

On the tenth minute, add the coconut milk on the top of the fish and bake for another five minutes. This will result in a medium rare fish. Cook longer if you want the fish to be a bit more done. Usually, twenty minutes will result in a medium to beginning well done fish.

Ten minutes in the oven. Fish is just about

to be done - medium rare. Add coconut milk

on top and back five minutes more.

Remove the fish by lifting the leaf and transferring everything to an oblong dish. Serve hot.

This is just about done!

Transfer to an oblong dish with or without leaves

and spoon the milk on top.

Dutch Oven Pandan-Ginger Chicken.

To the ones who saw my video and article on the Filipino dish, "Pinaupong Manok" - translated as, "Sitting Chicken", this is somewhat related to that. Before I begin, a little bit of history.

In 19th century Philippines, ovens as was in other countries were humongous kitchen utilities since they require wood and coal to keep the heat constant. Can one just imagine that the cake was in the middle of baking when suddenly the coal runs out and the heat begins to falter sending the cake to a flat disaster! Also, since one cannot open the oven constantly just to feed it with coal and wood to maintain heat, the chamber where the fuel is located is different from the baking rack. In this regard, the original brick ovens were large, taking roomful of space and thus only the well-to-do can afford them. Thus, baking and roasting was a method that wasn't readily available to all especially the poor. By ingenuity, they developed another method to achieve roasting without the use of ovens.

In the west, this is known as the pot roast which is a browned large piece of roasting meat, set in the middle of the pot lined with a metal guard that keeps the meat's undersides from touching the pot preventing burning. In the Philippines where clay pots were a traditionally used item, the chicken roast was done with a similar though modified set up. There is a bed of salt on which a banana leaf wrapped whole chicken sits. The salt would prevent the chicken from touching direct heat and hence burning. Likewise, since salt dehydrates any fluid it comes into contact with, the pot would be devoid of water juices hence roasting the meat.

Now, ovens are a common kitchen appliance and thus one can roast a chicken easily in the convenience of one's home. That said, we can do away with pot roasting and instead cook the meat in a dutch oven. And so here, the dutch oven is used to provide even heat which tenderizes and cooks the chicken. The banana leaf serves not just as a lining and guard from the pan's intense heat but provides an infusion of flavor into the meat.

A word about pandan. Lovely leaf. It has this sweet smell reminiscent of a delicate vanilla flavor but not floral that limits its use in deserts (unlike vanilla). It is used also in savory flavored dishes. This leaf can also be bought in the freezer aisle of the Asian supermarket.

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 piece ginger - double thumb sized, peeled and sliced thinly
• 3 stalks pandan leaf
• 1 small onion
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Banana leaves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the chicken lengthwise from the neck to the bottom cavity opening the carcass. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is how pandan leaves look like.
Just use three or four is enough.

Line the bottom of a dutch oven with a banana leaf. Line this with several pieces of onions, ginger and pandan leaf.

Chicken - flayed open. Salted and peppered. Place skin
side up on a bed of banana leaves, lined by pandan and
ginger. Also, tuck ginger slices underneath the legs and wings.

Place the chicken on this with the skin side up. Tuck underneath the wings and legs a piece of ginger. Then over this with another banana leaf and the dutch oven cover.

Cover further with banana leaves.



Cover with the dutch oven lid.

Bake for two hours and turn off the heat. Leave to cook to serving temperature - usually warm.

Bake as above. Turn off heat and leave alone to warm.
Because of the dutch oven being heavy, moisture would
not leave and and the chicken will not dry up. Instead, it
will tenderize the meat further!

Now the leaves are roasted with the heat - and this
infuses the meat for flavor!

And yum, yum, yum!!!

Blueberry Pie!

FIrst, my apologies to my readers for not updating this blog with new ideas.The hospital work and the divided attention to my many endeavors have compromised my curating my food blog. But it is not that I do not have any topics to discuss. In fact, I have taken multiple images and video clips for the next installment. However, the format I adopted for the blog is tedious that I cannot keep it up in a timely fashion and which then brings us to the second point.

 

Starting with this installment, I decided to forgo with the video portion of the article. I find that no matter how much editing of the instructional video I do, there are always complaints in the presentation or the editing or the script etc. On my part, they are time consuming to make and it is just disheartening to find the negative comments on my YouTube channel. And besides, it is the reason why I delay the release of my next article.

 

Therefore, I'd show the full instruction of my recipes here on this blog using detailed photographs and if there are any questions, feel free to write on the comments section and I would respond to them. In this way, I keep the forum controlled within one site.

 

Anyway - on to this installment.

 

Blueberry Pie!

So summer is finally here. And I find that there is just an abundance of fruit in sale prices in the supermarkets. My sister just visited me a month ago and bought some cute small McIntosh apples which she did not consume and I decided to make some Apple Blondie Cake. But I am reserving that for the next installment. Meanwhile, I bought some blueberries and made blueberry pie and tonight I just served them to my nurses in the hospital and the reviews were just surprisingly good.

 

"I need to have that recipe," one said. "I don’t normally like pie. But seeing that, I just decided to have a slice!"

 

As mentioned in my last article on apple pie, there are two things that make it - obviously, the crust and the filling. It is in the complementary taste and texture that make pie and therefore, as much as the filling is important in defining the flavor of the pie, still the crust is what makes pie. And the way to make pie crust is as basic as a proportion that I have already defined in my head: 1 stick butter:1 cup all purpose flour, salt and sugar depending on the purpose of the pie and ice cold water. 

 

Blueberries. Note that blueberries are usually very sweet without much character. It is much like eating sugar and therefore, to bring its flavor forward it has to have a tartness that is not in the fruit in the first place. This is where lemon juice comes handy. The sour lemon juice would mix with the sweet blueberries contrasting each other and therefore brings forth the remaining delicate flavor of the blueberry. And because blueberries are rather juicy, cooking it would release its juices making it watery. This is where a half a cup of flour comes in. Then, do not forget cinnamon to bring some spice and butter to make it hearty.

 

Without further comment, I am presenting to you my recipe of my hit Blueberry Pie.

 

Blueberry Pie:

 

Pie Crust:

• 2 sticks (therefore 1 cup) butter, cold but soft
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 3 tablespoons white sugar (or to taste)
• ¼ - 1/3 cup ice cold water

 

Blueberry filling:

• 2 pints (2 small containers) fresh blueberries
• 1/4 (to taste) cup of lemon juice
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 stick butter, cold and sliced
• ½ cup all purposed flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

 

Procedure:

 

To make pie crust:

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Cut butter into slices and place them on top of the dry ingredients. Using two blunt knives (e.g. table knives) "cut the butter" through the dry flour so that the butter resembles pie sized particles surrounded by the flour. At this point, place ¼ cup of ice water and carefully using the fingers, lightly incorporate the liquid into the flour and butter mix making a solid but non-resilient dough. When carefully inspected, one can see the specks of butter in the dough. Do not knead the dough. The point of this is to make a flaky pastry and this can be achieved if there are specks of butter in between the flour that later would melt away as heat is introduced in the oven.
3. Divide the dough 2/3 and 1/3. Wrap both with wax paper and chill for about 10 minutes until easy to handle.
4. At this point, turn on your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Getting the larger dough and flattening it in between two sheets of wax paper, flatten further and equally using slight pressure from an inside to outside motion with a rolling pin. Lift the dough still between the sheets of wax paper to see whether it will fit the pie pan.
6. Remove one of the sheets and place on the pie pan. Chill this again in the refrigerator while making the filling.

Butter, cold but soft, is placed on top of the dry ingredients...

and using two blunt knives, it is cut into small pea sized
particles which are surrounded by the flour.

 

Add ice cold water...

...and using your fingertips incorporate the water within
the flour-butter mix releasing the gluten.

Further using the fingertips to mix.  Do not knead!

Still incorporating, becoming a solid mass.

And becoming the pie crust we want.

Divide the dough to large 2/3 and small 1/3 portions.
Wrap with wax paper and chill until easy to handle
(about fifteen minutes).

Getting the large portion and in between wax paper,
roll evenly using an in to outward motion
using a rolling pin.

See if it covers the pie pan by measuring the dough,
wax paper on, laying it on the pan.

Only when you are sure, remove one of the wax
papers and...

...lay it on the pan. Chill this in the refrigerator. Set
your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit as you
make the filling.

To make filling:

1. Combine together the ingredients of the filling leaving out first the flour in order to see whether the balance of flavors is right to your taste. One may choose to slightly add more sugar or lemon juice while judging its sweetness and tartness. When the taste is just right, add the flour and mix well. Remove the remaining wax paper from the crust. Place the blueberry mixture on the crust lined pie pan.
2. Using the above technique, flatten the smaller piece of pie crust and place this on top of the blueberry mixture. Fold the edges of the bigger crust to the smaller crust and flatten using the fingertips sealing the two ends together. Pinch serially around the crust edges to have that fluted look. Use the edge of a blunt knife to smoothen the edges.

Wash the blueberries and drain.

With the berries. add sugar, lemon juice, butter and cinnamon.
Taste one of the berries to see if the balance of sweet
and sour is right. Adjust by adding a bit of sugar
or lemon juice according to taste.

Add the flour and mix well.

Roll in between waxpapers, the smaller piece of dough.

Smaller piece rolled flat.

Get tghe crust lined pan and remove the remaining
waspaper.

Place filling in the pan and top with the smaller piece
of pie dough.

The smaller piece of dough covering the blueberryfilling.

Fold the lower edge to the top edge and seal.

Using fingertips, pinch the dough around the circumference.

Evening the edges using a blunt knife by
"pushing" the dough within.

Do not forget to place airvents. Bake for an hour with the last
ten minutes baking after brushing with eggwash and
sprinkling with sugar for frosted look.

Cool and serve!

 

Bake in the preheated oven of 350 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. During the last ten to fifteen minutes of baking brush the top with an eggwash consisting of a well beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water and sprinkle the top with white sugar. This will give your pie a shiny appetizing look.

 

Let cool to room temperature and serve.