R024Meen Vevichathu
Kudampuli fish curry, the Kottayam Syrian Christian way
R038
Fish in Banana Leaf
Steamed or baked parcels with a green coconut-coriander paste
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringThis is pollichathu's method stripped to its structural minimum. There is no fried masala at all — the paste goes on raw, the parcel goes into a steamer or an oven, and total added fat is 5 g across four servings, brushed on the leaves so they do not stick.
The banana-leaf parcel is the oldest cooking vessel in Kerala and the most efficient piece of equipment in this book. It costs nothing, it needs no fat, it cooks a fish in its own moisture at just under boiling point so overcooking becomes difficult, and it perfumes the food with its own aromatics while it does so. This recipe is the one to give a reader who has never cooked fish and is afraid of ruining it. It is very hard to ruin.
Before you start: Soften the banana leaves over a flame or in boiling water, 10–15 seconds each, until glossy, dark and pliable. Cut them roughly 30 × 30 cm. A brittle leaf splits at the fold.
Fish in Banana Leaf
Active 20 minutes Total 35 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓30 g (a large handful) coriander leaves and tender stems
- ✓4 green chillies (about 20 g)
- ✓40 g (about 4) shallots
- ✓15 g (a 3 cm piece) ginger
- ✓20 g (¼ cup) freshly grated coconut
- ✓20 ml (4 tsp) lime juice
- ✓3 g (½ tsp) M07 salt, or plain salt
- ✓2 g (⅓ tsp) black pepper
- ✓600 g (1 lb 5 oz) firm fish, in 4 fillets or steaks of about 150 g
- ✓5 g (1 tsp) coconut oil, for brushing the leaves
- ✓4 banana leaf pieces, about 30 × 30 cm
Allergens: Fish.
Equipment: Steamer with a lid, or an oven; banana leaves; a mixie or small blender; string or toothpicks. Substitute: a colander over a pot of simmering water with a plate on top steams four parcels perfectly well. Baking parchment works in place of banana leaf and gives you a competent steamed fish with none of the aroma.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 251 kcal |
| Protein | 34 g |
| Fibre | 1 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 4 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 5 g |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Saturated fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 320 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Grind the coriander, green chilli, shallots, ginger, coconut, lime juice, salt and pepper to a coarse green paste in short bursts, 20–30 seconds in total, adding 15 ml of water only if the blades will not catch. Stop while it still has texture — a smooth purée goes grey and tastes flat.
- Taste the paste. It should be sharply hot, distinctly sour and a little over-salted, because the fish will absorb all three and the parcel concentrates nothing.
- Coat each piece of fish with a quarter of the paste, top, bottom and sides, working it into any scores.
- Brush each softened leaf with about 1 g of coconut oil, sit the fish in the middle, fold the leaf over, fold the ends under, and tie or pin. The parcel should be snug: a loose parcel lets steam out and the fish poaches in escaped liquid.
- Steam over a rolling boil, covered, for a 2 cm fillet and 16–18 for a thick steak. Or bake at 200°C (390°F) for , which browns the leaf a little and tastes slightly more of it.
- Test by pushing a skewer through the leaf into the thickest part: it should meet no resistance and come out hot against your wrist. If in doubt, open one parcel and look — the flesh should be opaque and flake along its lines.
- Rest , and serve the parcels closed so each person opens their own.
Why this worksA sealed leaf is a sous-vide bag you can buy for nothing. The fish cooks in its own moisture at a temperature that cannot exceed 100°C (212°F), so the protein sets without the surface drying and the window between done and overdone widens from ninety seconds to about four minutes. The leaf's phenolic aromatics migrate inward with the steam, and the raw paste's volatiles are trapped rather than driven off.
Sourcing note
Almost any fish works, which is the point of the method — the parcel is forgiving of species in a way frying is not. In the US: cod, halibut, mahi-mahi, snapper or salmon. In the UK: hake, pollack, sea bream, or salmon fillets. In the Gulf: hamour, safi or chanad. In Australia: barramundi, snapper, blue-eye or ocean trout. This is the one recipe in the chapter where frozen fillets are entirely acceptable, because there is no crust to compromise — thaw in the fridge and pat dry. Frozen banana leaf is in every Asian and Latin American freezer aisle. Grated coconut can be frozen; desiccated will not grind into a paste and will make the paste gritty.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 3 g of net carbohydrate and 34 g of protein, which is the highest protein figure in this chapter. This is the dish to build a plate around when the rice portion is generous.
Blood pressure: 320 mg. Two grams of salt gives about 250 mg, and the lime and chilli in the paste carry the loss more easily than in any other recipe here.
Cholesterol: 5 g of saturated fat, and about 3.5 g of that is the fish's own rather than added. With a lean white fish and the same paste it falls to about 2 g, which makes this the lowest-saturated-fat main dish in the chapter.
Swap it
Steam → oven at 200°C (390°F), 18–22 minutes. Slightly drier, slightly more leaf flavour. Or a covered griddle as R029, 12–16 minutes, for char.
Banana leaf → parchment. A competent steamed fish and no aroma. Do not use foil; the paste is acidic.
Green paste → the fried masala from R029, which makes it a pollichathu with 15 g more oil. Or 60 g of M09 loosened with 20 ml of water and lime, for a roasted-coconut version.
Add 100 g thinly sliced tomato or 80 g of sliced shallot under the fish → a small amount of liquid collects in the parcel and becomes a sauce. Adds about 2 g of net carbohydrate a serving.
Prawns → 500 g, 8–10 minutes steamed. Mussel meat → 500 g, 6–8 minutes. (Allergen: this swap introduces crustaceans, molluscs.)
Make ahead · store · freeze
Assemble and hold — this is the best make-ahead fish dish in the chapter. Fridge 24 hours assembled and raw, which is a genuine advantage for entertaining. Freeze 1 month assembled and raw, cooked from frozen with 8–10 minutes added. Cooked: fridge 2 days, and it is good cold. Reheat by steaming the parcel again for 5–6 minutes.
Leftovers
Troubleshooting
Fish watery and the parcel full of liquid: the fish was frozen and not dried, or the parcel was loose. Pat dry, wrap snug.
Paste turned grey: over-ground, or ground too long so it heated in the jar. Short bursts.
Leaf split in the steamer: not softened enough. Ten to fifteen seconds over a flame changes the leaf completely.
Bland: the paste was not seasoned aggressively enough before wrapping. There is no way to adjust a sealed parcel, so taste at step 2 without fail.
Serve with
R015 Matta Rice · R016 Chilled-and-Reheated Rice · R053 Vanpayar Thoran · R089 Kerala Salad
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