banana leaf

Every step and ingredient adds something important to this recipe from the Puerto Rican-born chef and writer Reina Gascón-López. Annatto seeds steeped in oil give the rice its signature marigold hue. The banana leaf imparts a subtle tropical aroma to the rice as it cooks. Olives, ham, beer and peppers with their brine offer salt, fat, acid, umami and a bright pop of color. The sheer number of flavors layered into this dish make it a delight to unpack. The most exhilarating layer is the last one: pegao, the crisp, glassy shards of rice at the bottom of the pot. Gandules (pigeon peas) make this version of rice and beans distinctly Caribbean. Ms. Gascón-López prefers to start with dry gandules, which her family sometimes ships to her from Puerto Rico, then flavors the pot with some sofrito, a bay leaf or two and a smoked pork neck. If you have trouble finding dry pigeon peas, they are often labeled as toor at Indian grocery stores.

Arroz Con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice With Pigeon Peas)

banana

neutral oil,

annatto seeds

sofrito (recipe below)

manzanilla olives

pigeon peas, drained (reserve 2 1/2 cups cooking liquid, if possible)

Store-bought or homemade adobo spice blend (see Tip), to taste

salt and black pepper

rice

pale, lager-style beer

olive oil

yellow onion, large diced (about 1 cup)

red bell pepper, stem,

green bell pepper, stem,

garlic

cilantro,

scallions,

ají dulce peppers, stemmed and seeded (optional)

store-bought

Arroz con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice With Pigeon Peas)

Lay 1 banana leaf (or more, if needed) flat on a large cutting board, then set the lid of a large Dutch oven or similar pot on top. Use a paring knife to trace around the lid, and cut the leaf (or leaves) so that they will fit properly inside the pot. Cover with a clean dishcloth and set aside.

In a small saucepan, cook the neutral oil and annatto seeds over medium heat, allowing the seeds to infuse the oil. After 2 to 3 minutes, when the oil begins to bubble and the seeds start to crackle, turn off the heat and allow the oil to cool completely. Pour the cool oil through a fine-mesh strainer, reserving seeds for another round of infusing, if desired.

Make the sofrito: Use a food processor or high-speed blender to pulse the onion, red and green bell peppers, cubanelle pepper, garlic, cilantro, scallions, ají dulce peppers (if using) and culantro (if using), adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if needed to achieve a smooth, salsa-like consistency. Stir in 3/4 teaspoon sazón and set aside. (The sofrito makes about 2 cups. Refrigerate it for up to 5 days or portion it into ice cube trays or plastic containers, and freeze up to 6 months.)

Set the large Dutch oven or similar pot over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons annatto oil and the ham or fatback. Sauté until crisp and most of the fat has rendered, about 6 minutes. Add 1/4 cup sofrito, the olives and 1 tablespoon sazón, stirring until sofrito is fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Next, add pigeon peas and sauté for another 3 minutes. Season with adobo, salt and black pepper to taste.

Reduce heat to medium. Add rice, stirring until grains are all coated, seasoned and starting to toast. If there isn’t enough oil to generously coat all of the rice and peas in the pot, add the remaining tablespoon of annatto oil. This will help form a delicious golden bottom crust called pegao.

Once the rice is toasted, stir in the beer and cook for about 3 minutes, then add the reserved pigeon-pea liquid (or 2 1/2 cups water) and roasted red pepper brine. Taste the cooking liquid and adjust salt as needed; it should be pleasantly salty.

Gently stir rice, then spread about half the thinly sliced roasted red pepper over the rice. Drizzle with olive oil. Cover rice with prepared banana leaves, then cover pot with its lid and cook for 22 minutes.

Once the time has passed, remove the lid, open the banana leaves and gently fold the rice onto itself from the outside in to form a mound in the center of the pot. Reduce heat to medium-low, replace banana leaves and lid and continue cooking for 20 to 25 minutes to allow pegao to form at the bottom of the pot.

To serve, spoon rice atop a platter layered with fresh banana leaves. Garnish with remaining sliced roasted peppers. Use a metal spatula to scrape pegao out of the pot and serve on a separate plate. Be careful, because everyone will fight over it!

The traditional way to make Yucatecan cochinita pibil is to bury a pig in a steaming, smouldering, stone-lined pit and cook it slowly for many hours. The pork has first been marinated with a bright red paste of achiote seeds, garlic, spices and bitter orange juice, and then wrapped in banana leaves. This tender meat is pulled and served simply in its own juices with hot tortillas and pickled onion. Diana Kennedy’s no-fuss method for home cooks involves baking a small piece of pork in the oven for just a few hours, inside a heavy lidded pot, with a little water at the bottom.

Cochinita Pibil

pork

salt

4-6 garlic cloves,

cumin seeds

black peppercorns

allspice

red-chile powder

cloves

cinnamon powder

Mexican oregano

achiote-seed paste

orange,

grapefruit,

lime, juiced

banana leaves, wiped clean

white onion, thinly sliced

red onion, chopped

habanero,

Corn tortillas

Lime, optional

Score the fat of the pork, evenly salt the meat and set it aside while you make the marinade. In a dry saucepan over medium heat, toast the garlic cloves until they’re charred all over, then remove. In the same pan, add cumin, peppercorns, allspice, red-chile powder, cloves and cinnamon. Toast until you can really smell the cumin and pepper. Grind spices, and mix in a food processor until smooth with the oregano, charred garlic, achiote paste, all the citrus zest and about half the juice.

Place two overlapping banana leaves on your work surface, and put the pork at the center. Rub the spice paste all over the meat, arrange the sliced white onion on top and roll the whole thing up, folding the sides like wrapping paper. (If it unravels, tie it closed with some kitchen twine.) Set the parcel in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.

Heat oven to 300. Put the parcel on a rack, or a ring of scrunched-up aluminum foil, inside a heavy pot with a half cup of water at the bottom. Bake with the lid on until the meat is very tender and yields easily to a fork, about 4 hours. Meanwhile, mix the chopped red onion with remaining citrus juices, salt and habanero, and set aside.

While the meat is still warm, carefully transfer the parcel to a serving dish. Use a fork to shred the meat, spoon over the cooking juices and mix well. Serve with pickled onions, warmed tortillas and halved limes.

This cassava cake is coated with shredded coconut. It&#x27;s a Malaysian kuih recipe. It&#x27;s sweet, dainty and delicious!

Cassava Cake

(100 g) shredded coconut

(400 g) grated Cassava

(100 g) sugar

(125 g) coconut milk

water

potato starch

leaves,

banana leaf, optional

Water,

Heat up the water in a wok/pot big...

Heat up the water in a wok/pot big enough for a 6.5" square pan.

Combine the shredded coconut with 1/8 teaspoon salt...

Combine the shredded coconut with 1/8 teaspoon salt in a stainless steel dish and steam for 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Use a food processor to mix the grated...

Use a food processor to mix the grated cassava, sugar, coconut milk, water, potato starch and pinch of salt until well mixed, about 30-45 seconds.

Pour the mixture into a 6.5" (17 cm)...

Pour the mixture into a 6.5" (17 cm) square pan. Level the top of the mixture with the base of a spoon. Layer the screwpine leaves flat on top of the mixture. Steam the cassava mixture for 35-40 minutes on medium heat.

Remove the pan from the streaming tray when...

Remove the pan from the streaming tray when it is done. Let it cool completely before cutting. Cut into small squares and toss with the shredded coconut before serving.

Serve Steamed Cassava with Shredded Coconut on the...

Serve Steamed Cassava with Shredded Coconut on the banana leaf, optional.

Originally street food, these little steamed &#039;dumplings&#039; have an outer layer of savory rice flour, with ground pork and mushroom as the delicious filling.

Bánh Giò Recipe (Vietnamese Steamed Pork "Dumplings")

banana leaves

corn starch

rice flour

tbsp potato starch

chicken broth (~4.5 cups)

tbsp oil

tsp monosodium glutamate (optional)

onion

thinly sliced dried wood ear mushrooms (about 2 cups when hydrated)

cooking oil

pork (or substitute half or all with ground chicken)

sugar

pepper

monosodium glutamate (optional)

Defrost the leaves if frozen.

Wash banana leaves under running water to clean.

A few at a time, dip into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds to soften.

Cut into ~12x12 inch squares, depending on the size dumplings you want, removing tough areas around the stem that are hard to fold.

Set aside to dry before use.

Cut out matching sized pieces of foil wrap finished pyramids

Preparing Wrappers (You can do this a day a head)

Mix all ingredients in a large nonstick pot.

Rest for 30-60 minutes (longer is better).

Turn the stove to high heat until it hits a boil, then lower to medium-high so it maintains a low boil. After it hits the initial boil it should take about 3-6 minutes to thicken. Times may vary. You want it thick enough so the filling doesn't fall through it, but thin enough that you can still easily fill the wrappers' corners with it.

Turn off the stove and continue to stir for about 3 more minutes to smooth out the mixture.

Flour Mixture

Dice onion or or roughly chop in food processor. Remove.

Roughly chop mushroom by hand or in food processor.

Add oil to a large pan on medium-high, and saute onion light brown and fragrant.

Add ground meat and saute until slightly cooked all over, but not fully cooked. Let the meat get tough enough to break apart, and so it's not mushy.

Add mushroom and all remaining ingredients to the pan and saute so the mushroom is slightly cooked. After the meat is fully cooked and no longer pink in the middle, taste and add more salt or pepper if needed, to taste.

Filling

Start with 1 layer of aluminum foil and place 1 layer of banana leaves on top

Start the initial folds to make the first point of the pyramid (see pictorial above)

Add a spoonful of the rice flour mixture--half the amount you want in this piece.

Add a spoonful of the filling to the center.

Add a spoonful of the rice flour mixture to encase the filling.

Finish wrapping, repeat until you use up all your ingredients. The goal is to evenly split the rice flour mixture and filling for each pyramid into 12-14 equal portions.

Wrapping Method

Add ~2 gallons of water to a big steamer pot.

Bring to a boil on high heat.

Add all the banh gio to the steamer rack. Cook for about 40 minutes.

At about the 40 minute mark, open one up and check the rice flour mixture for doneness. When it's clear it's done. Add more steam time as needed--it's difficult to overcook this.

Steaming

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Top 4 banana leaf recipes from across the web

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Arroz Con Gandules (Puerto Rican Ri...

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Cassava Cake

Bánh Giò Recipe (Vietnamese Steamed...

The most viewed banana leaf recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine