Banana Leaf Cooking!

I recently went to a local food produce stand here in America’s home town, and mine, Plymouth, MA and Teri had giant banana leaves sitting on the floor of her ever so cute little veg-shed. She ended up giving me a leaf (as I was out of money since I bought so much wonderful stuff!) and I told her I would write about it in my next blog. What a blast it was to cook fish on the grill wrapped in banana leaf…a-w-e-s-o-m-e! …and very easy. It made me feel quite cheffy! I know I talked about fillet of sole last time, but we eat a lot of fish and sole is one of my favorites. And last time we did not wrap it in banana leaf!

Teri also sells fabulously fresh hen and duck eggs, all kinds of vegetables, freshly cut flowers, and beautiful driftwood sculptures she creatively makes herself. Check her out on Facebook. Invite Teri Payne Snyder to be your “friend” and she will invite you to her Farmstand Group.

First, here is the leaf which was about 3 feet long. Next, I cut it into roughly 12″ x 12″ squares to wrap my fillet of sole into.

Here is the sole after being cooked.

I stuffed this sole with crab meat (about 1/2 lb. for 4 fillets or use good quality canned crab) mixed with about 2 Tbsp. of mayonaise, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a little salt, pepper and the stuffing was complete. Drizzle the sole with olive oil, salt, pepper  and a little more freshly squeezed lemon juice. Put about 2-3 (depending on how big your fillets are) Tbsp. of the crab into the center of each fillet. Roll up gently and then wrap them in the banana leaves. Think: Christmas or gift package. Gently roll folding each side and then tie with kitchen string. You may have crab left over, but that is not a bad thing! This makes a great stuffing for mushrooms.

Can you see how much fun I have playing with food?!?!

Get your grill on high and drop each package onto high heat for about 4 minutes per side.

Tender, juciy, and incredibly flavorful, these banana leaves kept all the juices in and made for a very interesting and fabulous meal. Thank you Teri! Wonder what other leaves you could wrap food in?

This reminds me of when my husband, Jerry and I were in Fiji about 20 years ago…On our last festive night in that spectacular part of the world, we had a meal that was cooked wrapped in some kind of leaves (possibily leaves from a giant coconut palm tree), buried underground and cooked for hours in a bed of hot rocks. I remember it was some kind of fish and veg. When they unearthed it, it was coated with soot and dirt and who knows what else, but in any case, NOT good. We all tried to be gracious because this was a traditional way of cooking, but even ME who likes almost everything had a bit of a hard time. It took a lot of kava to get that meal down. My poor husband, whose tummy is delicate got horribly sick on the 14 hour flight home. My general rule of thumb when traveling, regarding food…no matter what! GO FOR IT!

Here’s an interesting veg I also got from Teri’s Farm…

You may be familiar with these beans, but I was not. They taste almost exactly like green or yellow wax beans, but the amazing thing is when you cook them they become green again. I love the transformation! They are also great sliced and raw in salads. When you cut into them, their centers are green making a very attractive presentation.

Traditional green beens on the left and the purple beans on the right. See the difference?!?! Right, no difference when cooked!

Our kitty cat, Jo Jo just had a birthday. He turned 1 last Thursday. I made him a special birthday kitty cake and we had a little celebration for him. You will hear about those festivities next week along with some other tips and a suggestion for freezing basil pesto I just learned about this weekend from a new friend I met at a car show!

Here I am with my sister-in-law Chickie wearing my new Rabbitt’s Kitchen birthday apron. What a wonderful and thoughtful gift dear Chickie. Thank you!