Banana Leaf cooking

[firecrest]

I stumbled across some banana leaves in china town and bought two packets. I know you can cook wrapped in dock leaves ect, but apparently banana leaves impart a nice sweet flavour so I want to try them out at the meet at the weekend. Does anybody have any ideas what to cook? Ive got a trout, I think that should do nice, would I put it covered in embers?

I watched some youtube videos, they need to be wilted first in the flame to make them less inclined to break. They seemed to be mostly making Thai sticky rice but these are then steamed.

Anyway there seems to be quite a lot of banana leaf so if anybody would like some they are welcome

 

[MartinK9]

Found this:

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaicookingessentials/ht/bananaleafhowto.htm

Don't know if it is of any help

 

[He' s left the building]

Does anybody have any ideas what to cook? Ive got a trout, I think that should do nice, would I put it covered in embers?

Trout in banana leaf would be ace, can be boiled or placed on BBQ or in embers. Use the leaf fibre to tie it shut.

My wife says try dukanoo: http://www.jamaican-recipes.com/bluedrawers.html which is traditional jamaican/west african cornmeal pudding (like rice pudding but with corn).

Tamales is also cooked/served in banana leaf, I've had them in Central America but not to my taste unless I'm very hungry! Bony meat wrapped in corn-bread from my recollection, I'm sure I was buying them from the wrong place???! http://www.honduras.net/foods/tamales.html

 

[verloc]

me and the missus were in vietnam for our honeymoon a couple of years ago and the food was all awesome but the thing she remembers was the cheap meal we had on a riverfront cafe in hoi an where she ate local fish straight out of the water and cooked in bannana leaves that the owners little girl was sent to get fresh from the market at the end of the road and she swears she has not had anything ever as good in her life!! So yeah i reckon the trout would be superb.

tom

 

[firecrest]

Trout in banana leaf would be ace, can be boiled or placed on BBQ or in embers. Use the leaf fibre to tie it shut.

My wife says try dukanoo: http://www.jamaican-recipes.com/bluedrawers.html which is traditional jamaican/west african cornmeal pudding (like rice pudding but with corn).

Tamales is also cooked/served in banana leaf, I've had them in Central America but not to my taste unless I'm very hungry! Bony meat wrapped in corn-bread from my recollection, I'm sure I was buying them from the wrong place???! http://www.honduras.net/foods/tamales.html

I went to honduras in 2003, I didnt have this recipe, but I do remember all that bony meat!
apparently they love to suck meat from the bone so try to get a peice of bone in every cut!

 

[philaw]

My pal once did a hawaiian pig roast (buried with red-hot bricks) for us using banana leaves to wrap it up. The recipe asked for tarrow leaves, but the banana leaves were just great and added flavour. You could certainly bundle up rice with meat and stuff in the middle.

How about a whole chicken with creamed coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the embers of a fire. In fact, I'm going to try that when barbecue season comes round!

 

[Jaysurfer]

In Mexico they do a slow Roast Prok wrapped in Banana leaves - It is meant to be quite spicey as they make a marinade and keep the marinade in the fridge for 24 hours then marinade the pork in the sauce for another 24 hours then wrapp it in the leaves and slow roast for 6 hours.

But i reckon you could roust it in a pit oven without the sauce - could always make an apple/cinimon and cidar marinade and then wrap it in Banana leavse and throw it in the pit oven to roast.
May be preaching to the perverted but for the pit oven you'd need to dig a hole a couple of feet deep, line it with rocks in the bottom, get afire going on top of the rocks and build up some decent embers (the flames should be raching above the surfaceonce you have the embers put about 6 imches of moss or foliege or dirt on the embers then the wraped meat then some more moss ect. ect. then some more embers from a seperate fire and some more dirt and leave for 6 hours.

I bet with the cinimon, apples and cider it will taste good. You can always add a bit of pepper, tyme and for a slightly oriental flavour chopped chilli's and coconut too.

 

[firecrest]

My pal once did a hawaiian pig roast (buried with red-hot bricks) for us using banana leaves to wrap it up. The recipe asked for tarrow leaves, but the banana leaves were just great and added flavour. You could certainly bundle up rice with meat and stuff in the middle.

How about a whole chicken with creamed coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the embers of a fire. In fact, I'm going to try that when barbecue season comes round!

Ihave a little tin of cocoanut milk somewhere, though I dont think there is enough leaves for a whole chicken (its hard to tell they are in a bundle) I could always take a fillet out.

 

[philaw]

Ihave a little tin of cocoanut milk somewhere, though I dont think there is enough leaves for a whole chicken (its hard to tell they are in a bundle) I could always take a fillet out.

That sounds like it would work better. On reflection, getting the middle of a whole chicken cooked without burning the outside would be hard work.