Once a month or so, my mother sends me a box from home filled with food. The last one, timed perfectly for lunar new year, included a batch of rice cakes. Before I even saw them, though, I knew there was treasure buried somewhere deep beneath her homemade peanut brittle, gingery mustard pickles from the last greens in her garden and bags of candied coconut used as packing material. The distinctive green-tea aroma of banana leaves had emerged as soon as the packing tape was cut.

Throughout the tropical sun belt, banana leaves appear as easy, inexpensive, natural, sanitary–and most importantly–delicious packaging. From Mexican tamales to Indian wedding feasts, Malaysian lunches to Vietnamese fast food, the leaves provide pliable wrapping, compostable tableware and a lovely flavoring for steamed or simmered specialties. Throughout Southeast Asia, you’ll see banana-wrapped foods for sale as street food. Food sealed within their layers and then cooked slowly will keep for days without being refrigerated. Traditional foods for the lunar new year period are often cooked in banana leaves, especially for serving during the first three days when families are supposed to be enjoying each other’s company rather than cooking.

For my mom and all my generous, food-loving aunts, banana leaves are perfect for the three-day priority mail period between the Midwest and California.

BUYING BANANA LEAVES

Virtually all Asian and Latino markets with a freezer section will stock banana leaves that have been folded and frozen into large squares. Though more delicate than fresh leaves, they’re easy and convenient to use. If you’re lucky enough to have a pesticide-free tree somewhere in your neighborhood, you might offer a trade in sweet or savory treats for an armful of fresh leaves. Berkeley Bowl often stocks fresh leaves, and there are also numerous mail-order sources for fresh leaves, such as Florida-based Greenearth.

USING BANANA LEAVES IN YOUR KITCHEN

Here are just a few simple suggestions for experimenting with banana leaves:

Golden Rice
Cook long-grain rice, substituting 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water or stock with coconut milk. Add a few slices of ginger, a cinnamon stick and a pinch of turmeric. After the rice is cooked, stir gently and then prepare small packets of the rice. Steam for 20 minutes and then serve with curries or grilled fish.

Tamales
Rick Bayless offers a recipe for banana-leaf wrapped Red Chile Pork Tamales at his Frontera website. We’re lucky enough to live in an area where tamale dough is available pre-made in Latino markets. Leftover or take-out chicken mole is a most excellent substitute for slow-cooking your own filling. For variety, sprinkle green olives, bell peppers or corn kernels over the filling before enclosing and cooking.

Fish with Red Curry
Small packets are a fun alternative at summer grill parties, while a hot oven is a perfectly decent rainy-weather option for a dramatic yet simple dinner-party dish. Rub sea bass or salmon with a generous amount of prepared Thai red curry paste thinned with a small amount of oil. I prefer using a whole fish and filling its cavity with scallions and lime wedges, but you can easily use steaks or fillets. Wrap a whole fish completely in three layers of banana leaves, alternating the grain of the banana leaf to crisscross from layer to layer for added stability. Individual portions can be wrapped in one large rectangle on a bed of scallions and lime slices. Tie tightly with wet string and then grill over medium high coals or roast at 400 degrees, allowing 10 minutes base time plus 10 minutes for every inch thickness of the banana leaf packets.

Mushrooms with Tomatoes and Ginger
Thinly slice full-flavored mushrooms and toss them with diced tomatoes (drain well if using canned), chopped scallions, grated ginger, cilantro, salt and black pepper. Wrap in individual packets and bake or grill until completely charred on the outside. Serve as a side dish with steamed rice and grilled chicken or pork.

Sweet Rice with Coconut and Peanuts
Cover about 2 cups of sticky rice with 3 inches of water and let soak for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Drain well. In a small bowl, mix together 1 cup each of grated coconut and chopped, roasted peanuts. Stir in a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to taste (omit if using pre-sweetened coconut) and then a healthy sprinkling of salt. At the center of a large square of banana leaf, mound 1/4 cup of sticky rice, layer 1/4 cup of the filling, then finish with 1/4 cup more of sticky rice. Fold the leaf in thirds like a letter, then fold in the two side-flaps to overlap at the center; tie securely with string. Steam for one hour, then let cool completely before serving as mid-morning or afternoon snacks with strong tea.

WORKING WITH BANANA LEAVES

If you’re used to Saran wrap or foil, there’s a bit of an adjustment to using natural material that’s irregularly shaped and varied in texture from package to package, leaf to leaf. But banana leaves are immensely fun to work with, and their flavor is far, far superior to plastic or metal. Like crepes, practice with one or two or three first to get into the groove. Each thin package of banana leaves doesn’t look like much, but there’s a lot folded up in there. The leaves are inexpensive enough that you can get an extra one for back-up if it’s your first time working with them.

• A couple of hours in the fridge or a few minutes submerged in very hot water will thaw out frozen leaves. I usually place the leaves in my empty sink, and then pour boiling water over them to clean and soften them. I keep them in the hot water until just before I need them, wiping a few at a time with a cloth to absorb excess moisture. Always wipe in the direction of the grain to prevent splitting the leaves.

• Soak some toothpicks or kitchen string at the same time. I prefer string for larger parcels of food, since the toothpicks can cause more damage then their convenience is worth. If you forget to soak the string or toothpicks, expect to see them char completely if grilled or roasted. If you’re making very small packets, you can use thin strips of the banana leaf itself as ties.

• With a pair of scissors, trim away the hard, center vein of the leaf. Sometimes, I use the hard edges as extra support for larger packages, such as whole fish, but it can cause the leaf to split, so it’s best to remove them until you’re comfortable working with larger leaves. For appearance sake, you might also want to trim away any yellow streaks.

• To repair and reinforce a split leaf, just place it on top of another leaf with its grain running perpendicular.

• When grilling large items, such as a whole fish, use a cookie sheet and two wide spatulas to transfer the package to the rack, to turn it halfway through the cooking period and to remove it when done cooking.

• For easier and more attractive serving, especially on a buffet table, use shears to snip open the packets.

• Banana leaf packets are perfect for preparing ahead of time and cooking later. They hold up to moist fillings and they’re easy to carry to potlucks and parties. Cover with a damp cloth to keep them moist in the fridge. Don’t wait more than three days to cook them, though. They’re organic material, after all, and will start fermenting if left raw too long. Once cooked, though, they and the food they hold last a surprisingly long time even at room temperature. While we have become spoiled by the apparent safety of refrigerators, much of the world still enjoys prepared snacks wrapped securely and deliciously in banana leaves.

We haven’t seen one yet, but found this review and wanted to pass this on for those that "need" a new grill!  Saucy might just be able to justify this one…..although it does seem that it’s not built as well as it should be for the price ($700 @ Home Depot!!!!)

Char-Broil RED 3-Zone Infrared Grill (Model# 463250108)

Guide Rating –

Heavenly scents and divine tastes will invade Cañon City this June during the inaugural Royal Gorge Holy Smoke Barbeque Showdown on the former Abbey football field.

(WebMD) 

Curcumin, an ingredient in the curry spice turmeric, may help prevent heart failure.

That’s according to two new studies done on rats, not people.

In both studies, researchers gave curcumin to rats. The rats then got surgery or drugs designed to put them at risk of heart failure.

The rats that got curcumin showed more resistance to heart failure and inflammation than comparison groups of rats that didn’t get curcumin.

Also, in one of the studies, the researchers saw signs that curcumin treatment reversed heart enlargement. The other study didn’t include that experiment.

Together, the studies suggest that curcumin short-circuited the heart enlargement process, though it’s not clear how it did that.

Both studies showed no sign of side effects from curcumin.

The researchers included Tatsuya Morimoto, MD, PhD, of the National Hospital Organization in Kyoto, Japan, and Hong-Liang Li, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto’s cardiology division.

The studies "came to nearly identical conclusions," says an editorial published with the studies in February’s edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

But editorialist Jonathan Epstein, MD, cautions against counting on curcumin to prevent heart failure in people, since the findings in rodents may not apply to people.

Epstein works at University of Pennsylvania’s cell and developmental biology department, Cardiovascular Institute, and Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

A recent study found that 75 percent of headache patients felt relief when they rubbed capsaicin (the component that makes chile peppers hot) on their nose.

from our friends at eatbetteramerica.com…..  some great tips on how to cut some of the fat out of traditional BBQ!

With a few fun additions and some subtle changes to how you cook, your backyard can become an open-air entertainment and fitness center.

On the Grill Unbeef the Burgers. Reduce the meat in burgers and spare yourself some of the fat without noticing the difference. Simply replace about an eighth of the meat with veggies. Finely chop and sauté onions, peppers, shredded carrots, or zucchini, and blend into the patties. To go completely vegetarian, throw a portobello mushroom on the grill. The mushroom’s texture is similar to steak and tastes good with all the regular burger condiments.

Check the Oil. To reduce fat in foods grilled with marinades, swap oil for mild fruit or vegetable juices, canned broth, or plain yogurt. However, leave in 1 tablespoon of oil to help prevent the food from sticking to the grill.

Get Game. Instead of the traditional ground beef, turkey, or chicken burgers, get some game—game meats, that is. They may contain less fat than commercially produced meats. A couple good examples to look for: venison chops, buffalo burgers, and elk steaks.

Trim Chicken. While cooking, leave the skin on the chicken breast to retain moisture, and then remove it before serving. This will reduce the number of calories and fat.

Costs squeeze New Mexico’s peppers

Chile breeders at New Mexico State University have developed a gem of a new chile variety that produces the reddest pigment commercially available. “NuMex Garnet,” a paprika chile for natural food coloring, was unveiled today at the 20th Annual 2002 Chile Conference in Las Cruces.

“It could be a big step forward for the industry,” said Louis Biad, the founder of Biad Chili Co., a 40-year-old chile processing facility 10 miles north of Las Cruces.

Throughout the world, red coloring is commonly extracted from paprika powder and used in a stunning range of consumer products from cosmetics to processed meats.

“Just about any type of product that needs to be red can be colored with chile,” said Stephanie Walker, an NMSU research specialist who conducted most of the new variety’s field trials. “It’s used in lipsticks, bologna, even mayonnaise.”

Use of chile as a natural coloring agent began almost two decades ago, when the federal government banned a widely used red dye because of cancer risks. In 1990, an NMSU research team began a chile breeding program aimed at developing a chile variety better suited for the color extraction industry.

“Color extractors need high-color paprika to make their production process more efficient,” said Paul Bosland, a professor and the director of Chile Pepper Institute at NMSU. “The higher the color, the more cost-effective it is for them.”

The NuMex Garnet program began by taking a locally grown chile with high red color and crossing it with a variety with better growing traits. Seven more years were spent refining the selection, and the last three years involved improving color, yield and growth viability in different growing environments.

Field research was at NMSU’s Agricultural Science Center at Artesia, and near Las Cruces at the Fabian Garcia Research Center and Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center.

While the new chile is deep red, it packs no tongue-burning heat.

Capsaicinoids, those natural substances that produce watery eyes, runny nose and a burning sensation in the mouth, are at undetectable levels.

Pungency is unwanted for colorings.

“Oh, sure the peppers are edible,” Bosland said with a smile. “They’re just not going to burn you very much.”

A common way to test pungency is the ‘bite the chile’ taste test. While quick and cost effective, the method can leave testers in some pain, Bosland said. NMSU’s chile researchers prefer a more scientific approach, high performance liquid chromatography, a process that extracts the chemicals responsible for pungency from a dried ground sample, he said.

Another feature of the new variety is its adaptability to machine harvesting, a characteristic that is increasingly important in New Mexico as labor costs and shortages continue to pound the state’s $200 million chile industry. When red chile is machine harvested, it is critical that pods detach from the rest of the plant, which stays in the field.

“If it’s hard to get off the plant, you’re going to get more trash, and a messy, sticky, leafy product,” Walker said. “At this point, it looks like Garnet will harvest very well.” One point favoring the new chile is a dispersed pod set, which spreads the peppers throughout the canopy, making them easier for the machine to reach, she said.

While NuMex Garnet has been officially released, it won’t be in growers’ hands for another two years. This year, breeders’ seed will be grown to build a foundation seed supply for distribution through the New Mexico Crop Improvement Association. The association provides seed to producers.

New Mexico, America’s chile capital, has plenty of competition worldwide among paprika producers, especially from India, China, Africa and South America.

“There is so much paprika produced in other areas of the world that we felt the need to increase the value of the crop grown here,” Walker said. This value-added approach of increasing red color content and dry matter saves color processors cash because they don’t have to spend as much money drying peppers and extracting the color, she said.

“Numex Garnet is impressive,” said Vince Hernandez, who has studied the variety in the field and acts as a consultant for Radium Springsbased Rezolex, one of the nation’s only two chile color processing plants, located 12 miles north of Las Cruces. “It should make us a little more competitive.”

Reprinted from southwestfarmpress.com

Saucy wishes all a very Happy New Year filled with lots of peppery adventures!

We would like to welcome you all to our new online community! Within the next few days, we’ll start posting blogs, and we encourage you all to join and be a reviewer! We also have debuted our new forum, which is still under development. It is fully functioning, just not looking so pretty yet…..

Be sure to check out our new ONLINE SHOPPING AREA, where you can find all you hot needs…..including some great holiday gift ideas such as our Monthly Hot Sauce Clubs, where the happy receipent will receive 2 hot sauces each month personally selected by Saucy herself. These can be customized to meet every taste bud.