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!!!