Coriander leaves, curry leaves, bay leaves — are all an integral part of every kitchen, normally used as an ingredient or garnish. Besides these, some lesser known leaves — pandan, moringa, lotus, jack fruit — too have long invaded kitchens across the country.
The latter category, however, don’t form garnishes to cook with, but vessels to cook in, and are a part of cuisines across India.
Much before cling films, foils and other wrapping material made their way into kitchens, leaves were used to wrap vegetables and fish for steaming.
Chef Vinu Raveendran, executive chef, Trésind Mumbai and Dubai, explains, “Traditionally, different types of leaves have been used in cooking for centuries. Banana leaves are used to wrap fish and lotus leaves to wrap rice before they are steamed. Besides imparting flavour to a dish, leaves also act as an envelope and protect the flavour of a dish and preserve the juices released during the steaming process.”
It’s a wrap
In the South, banana leaves are also used to serve food, owing to their waterproof qualities.
When thawed, banana leaves retain their moist and flexible texture and grassy-sweet aroma that make them popular both at homes and hotels.
In the South, these leaves are used to steam savoury rice and black lentil dumplings, like idlis and kadubu . Vazha elai kozhukattai , a banana leaf dumpling, is basically a steamed rice cake made with raw rice flour, shredded coconut and jaggery. Another sweet dish — elai adai — is also wrapped in banana leaves before being steamed.
These leaves are also used for steaming fish in a patrani macchi , a Parsi delicacy, or in Bengal for bhapa ilish (steamed hilsa).
As Kolkata-based home chef Iti Misra explains, “Banana leaves are used during the process of steaming, in the case of bhapa ilish or chingri (prawn) or smoking directly on embers in case of a porah, or placing it on a hot griddle to cook, (as in the case of paturi ). These protect ingredients from direct exposure to steam, or to a hot tawa or burning embers. The food can be cooked without the ingredients getting scorched.”
Banana leaves may be the most common, but other leaves too make their presence felt in regional cuisines.
Turmeric leaves are also used to steam patoli or patoleo , a rice-flour sweet in the Konkan.
“Jack fruit leaf, known as phansache paan , is used in Goan cooking. Heet , a type of idli , is made by making a cone with these leaves and filling them up with batter and steaming in a copper steamer. Hardly anyone does this now, but I can still recall the heavenly aroma and taste of heet , especially when my mother-in-law made them,” shares Goa-based home chef and Saraswat cuisine expert Vaishali Joshi.
Transcending boundaries
Not only Indian cuisine, but even those across the globe use leaves. While grape leaves typify Mediterranean dolmas, lotus, bamboo, kaffir and pandan leaves are generously used in Asian food, besides banana leaves.
Rolled and stuffed grape leaves filled with rice and herbs or meat and dried fruit — dolma s — are an integral part of Mediterranean cuisine.
These rice-stuffed grape leaves from Turkey, are often served with some variations of fillings and are eaten cold as well as hot. Grape leaves are also used to wrap sardines before being grilled.
The citric flavours of verdant kaffir leaves work beautifully with fish dishes in Pan Asian delicacies. Banana leaves are also used in some Oriental countries to wrap curries, sambals and fish. Kuih Kochi is a pyramid-shaped sweet dumpling that comes wrapped in leaves.
Indonesians turn these waterproof leaves into cone-shaped pinchuk to hold snacks, sticky rice dishes and satay .
Chef Liang Xiao Qing, executive Chinese chef, ITC Hotels, says, “Lotus leaves with sticky rice is a popular Chinese dimsum. Glutinous rice is a simple steamed rice, but when steamed with lotus leaves, the taste of lotus leaves gets infused into it, thus enhancing the flavour of the dish. Kaffir lime leaves and lettuce leaves are also used in Asian wraps.”
Cocoons of sweetness
In Southeast Asia, pandan leaves or screw-pine are used to lend a unique taste and aroma to savoury dishes like nasi lemak and pandan wrapped chicken, but mainly used to flavour desserts like bubur cha cha .
That apart, these sweet-savoury, fragrant leaves, are used in rice dishes and curries, as well as, kuehs and cakes, to lend its distinctive flavour. The leaves are usually discarded before serving the dish, yet the rich aroma and fragrance persists.
Depending on the dish you make, there are a number of things to be kept in mind.
According to Chef Regi Mathew, Kappa Chakka Kandhari, Chennai, “The open face of the leaf should be touching the food, so that the aromatic oil molecules present on the upper surface come in contact and get absorbed by the food. This makes the dish more flavourful, as the leaf imparts its flavours.”
Chef Vinu cautions, “Storage in a cool, dry area is a must. While using leaves, especially green leafy vegetables, freshness is of utmost importance. It is also essential to know that green leafy vegetables lose their colour as soon as they are sanitised.”
Flavours infused in a dish, a dramatic parcel to unwrap in front of a diner or merely to seal the moisture — leaves lend themselves beautifully to dishes across cuisines.
