Cooking In and On Leaves

[Panaderia Canadiense]

just wait until I get my hands on some Heliconia and Shell Ginger leaves. Coconut-curry peanut and rice dumplings will be had by all!

Oh my - I have loads of shell ginger. Can you outline your recipe as those flavors are among my favorites.

I'll do you one better - I'll give you the recipe outright.

This dish is from the coastal province of Esmeraldas, and is normally served alongside garlic-seared Langostino. I have never encountered rice prepared this way outside of the coast, where it is always made with the extra shredded coconut and peanuts.

You need:

2 C thick coconut milk, preferably with the meat blended in.

1 C white rice

1 tbsp Curry blend; I use Garam Masala when I've got it, and Ecuadorian red curry powder when I don't

1/2 C finely chopped peanuts (optional)

1/2 C shredded coconut (optional)

A pinch of salt

Shell ginger leaves - how many will depend on the size of your leaves and the size of your spoon.

How?

Mix the rice with the coconut milk, curry, and salt, lid/cover the container, and leave it overnight in the fridge to swell up nicely. At least 12 hours is necessary to hydrate the rice properly - any less time and it comes out crunchy; 24 hours of soaking is ideal. If you want, you can add 1/2 C of shredded coconut to this at the soaking stage; it gives an interesting texture to the final product.

Once the rice has soaked, mix in the peanuts, then place about 3-4 heaping spoonfuls of the mixture on the back of the leaf, in the center. Now, fold the leaves as shown in the diagram and place them, folded ends down, in your steamer basket. You can pile the bundles up if you wish - but be aware they'll take longer to cook if you do this. I have a tamale steamer that I use for this kind of thing, and it holds about 10 bundles per layer, which is more than enough. However, you can use a collapsing steel steamer basket just as easily.

Now it's time to steam - if you've got a single layer of rice bundles, about 25-30 minutes or until the topmost bundle is springy to the touch should do it. If you're piled more than 2 bundles deep, add 10 minutes for each layer above 2, and check the top bundles by poking them for springiness.

Now serve them! Ideally, rice bundles should be piping hot when they're put on the plate; you have the option of leaving the wrappers on and letting your guests peel them, or of peeling beforehand. The rice will be moulded into the rectangular shape of the bundle. The aroma of this dish cooking is absolutely intoxicating.

[rancho_gordo]

I like to use corn husks soaked in water.

You can heat them on a dry comal or a grill. These were mainated tipapia (red recado, oraange juice, lime juice) zucchini, a wild shrimp and an orange slice.)

It's about 7 minutes on one side and five on the other. The husk will burn but inside it's moist and steamy.

You can also tie them with leftover husks, ripped or cut to make strings but regular kitchen string is a lot handier.

[Carolyn Phillips]

A very late reply to Panaderia Canadiense's question of April 9 w/r/t bamboo leaves...

In Taiwan, my understanding was that they generally used the largest bamboo leaves they could find, which are from the Indocalamus or "giant leaf" bamboo (http://www.lewisbamboo.com/tessinfo.html). After I read your question, I happily went to my two Chinese books on bamboo, thinking that I'd be able to nail the answer with all sorts of details in a second. Strangely enough, the articles were about growing bamboo, as well as making furniture, hats, etc., but not one about cooking with the shoots or wrapping with the leaves! Very frustrating.

There is an interesting article in Chinese on the varieties of bamboo leaves used for wrapping tamales -- including the lumber bamboo (mazhu) which seems to be grown everywhere in Taiwan -- as well as the spotted brown bamboo shoot sheaths that are used to wrap certain kinds of Chinese tamales. (The ones I tried that were enclosed in these beautiful leopard-patterned [yet much thicker] wrappers tended to be pork tamales.) This blog says that the best of these sheaths come from Makino bamboo (guizhu), which IIRC are also used as lumber and so are quite huge. Anyway, here is the article complete with photos: http://npuir.npust.edu.tw:8080/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=705&blogId=2

Hope this helps, and sorry for the lateness of this reply (deadlines, always deadlines). A blanket offer to anyone with a question or comment for me which I don't respond to right away is to drop me an email. That tends to prod me out of my catatonia.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Carolyn Phillips (log)

[DanM]

Rick Bayless has a great, simple recipe in his Mexican Everyday cookbook for chicken cooked in a banana leaf lined crockpot. IIRC, the chicken was coated with achiote paste and root veg was thrown in as well.