Property News · May 21, 2017

Let’s go bananas: growing the leaves in your back garden | James Wong


Banana leaves are surprisingly easy to grow – and now is the perfect timeI grew up in Singapore, and lunch every Thursday at my school canteen was nasi lemak. This was a neat little parcel of coconut-scented rice, crisp fried peanuts and curry, all wrapped up in a fresh green banana leaf. Functioning as a sort of flavoursome, botanical tinfoil, these stunning, paddle-shaped leaves are central to cuisines from southeast Asia to Latin America and Africa. For when food is cooked wrapped in them (like an exotic take on en papillote) or simply served on them while piping hot, flavour compounds – a fresh, grassy, vanilla meets green tea aroma – leach out of the cells of the leaves and are infused into the dish. They work their magic on everything from banana-leaf-wrapped BBQ fish in Malaysia, to steamed amok curries in Cambodia and the delicious bundles of steamed corn bread called tamales in Ecuador.These plants will kick out a huge 6ft-long leaf every week at the height of summer Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s go bananas: growing the leaves in your back garden | James Wong

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