Monday, June 12, 2006
Baked Hake in Banana Leaves
On my way home from work, I decided to throw all my good intentions about clearing the fridge and defrosting the freezer overboard and stop at Fallon & Byrne and have a quick look for some ingredients for the coming dinners. This was only m
y second visit to the shop, but I love it already. They truly fill a gap in Dublin's food store landscape, complementing perfectly the range of things I can buy at the market and at Liston's. The only thing that is missing is organic milk. Tesco and Dunnes both sell Glenisk, which will do if I can't get anything else, but I personally find it too watery. Marks & Spencer have good organic milk, but there isn't one near here or even on the way to and from work, so I have to make special trips to Grafton Street just to get milk. This gets a bit annoying as the place is always packed when I'm not working. But the missing milk was a minor inconvenience to day in the face of an abundance of other nice food. I got a few plum tomatoes on the vine, some purple potatoes, a fresh chilli, a piece of smoked tuna and a couple of figs and headed off home. I'm glad that I was quite worn out after a long day at the office, otherwise I might have run the risk of buying a lot more.But tonight I didn't really need anything. I had great plans for dinner: Spicy hake with lemon and garlic baked in a banana leaf.
1 banana leaf, cut in half and centre rib removed (in Europe and the US you can find banana leaves at Asian, Latin or fine food stores; you can use aluminium foil if you can't get any, but your dish will lose that distinct earthy/fruity taste)The technique of wrapping fish in banana leaves is common throughout the tropical regions of Latin America, Africa and, most notable, Asia. I had read countless times before that the leaves of banana plants give the food a certain flavour that cannot be substituted by anything else, but had long been unable to get my hands on any leaves to test the claim. I'd seen them frozen once in a fine food store in Munich, but I was living in Prague at the time so they were no good to me. So you can imagine how happy I was when my years of hunting this elusive ingredient finally came to an end when I found fresh banana leaves at the Asian Emporium on South George's Street. All I needed now was the fish to cook in them, and that came in the shape of a beautiful fillet of hake at Temple Bar Market. And let me tell you, the dish was well worth the wait. Simple, yet very tasty, it was the perfect finish to a glorious summer's day.
1 large fillet of white fish, such as hake, cod, snoek or even monkfish
a few spoonfuls of olive oil
1 young leek, sliced (or a few sliced spring onions or even ½ onion, finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped (I used a mild chilli because I did not want to kill the flavour of the fish, but if you like your food spicy, feel free to use a hot one)
¼ lemon (cut lengthways), sliced (alternatively, you can use lime)
a few mint leaves, finely chopped (alternatively, you can use coriander)
sea salt to taste
(depending on your taste, you could even add sliced ginger and freshly grated coconut to the mixture)
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. For the fish, youwill need to line a large roasting tray with the banana leaves. To make them more pliable, hold them over the hob or briefly dip them in hot water so the whole leaf is warmed and softened. Then place them in the tray, one overlapping the other and letting a large piece overhang on all sides. Make sure that you will be able to completely wrap the fish without leaving holes in the leaves. The fish is meant to steam in its own
juices, so the less steam you let escape the better. Place the fish, skin side down, in the centre of the tray and drizzle a little olive oil. Sprinkle over the leek, garlic, chilli, lemon and mint and season to taste with sea salt.
Fold the banana leaves over the fish to seal, and pin downthe edges with cocktail sticks or tooth picks. Place another tray or something relatively heavy (but not so heavy it quashes the fish) and ovenproof on top to keep everything in place.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake until the fish is completely cooked through and infused with flavours, about 25 minutes. Unwrap and remove the lemon slices. Serve with buttered potatoes or basmati rice cooked in coconut milk.
Christine at 9:11 pm
