How to Wrap Banana Leafs Around Food
Most people have difficulty wrapping the banana leaves for 2 reasons:
1. The banana leaves they got were too brittle, so it leaks after to wrapped it into triangle shape.
2. Their hands were too stiff because too little practice.
Therefore, to fix those two main problems we have to prepare the banana leaves to be flexible enough to put into shapes. and there are 3 ways to do it. 🙂
1. Sit the leaves in the sun for 1-3 minutes? so it loose the moisture and get a bit softer to put into shapes. This yield the result of burn banana leaves. Maybe we wouldn’t care about it much because when we steam the food, using banana leaves as a wrap, the leaves will turn brown as if it was burn any way. Remember, if you sit them in the sun, the leaves will look really ugly.
2. Using the heat from candle light. This way, would mean that you don’t have enough time to wait for the leaves to be sit in the sun for some amount of time. Same result, the leave will be dark and who cares? It will get dark color after being cooked anyway. 🙂
3. The best way to prepare your banana leaves so that it is flexible enough to be wrapped is to sit inside your house for 1-2 days. This way, the leave will loose some moisture and get more flexible. It will give the best result, because you will still get the green leaves and it looks much nicer when you wrap the food that doesn’t need to be cooked, like the dessert (glutinous rice with egg pudding)
Practice makes perfect: How to solve your stiff hands
3 words, practice, practice and practice. I learn my first wrapped at Primary 3 (when I was 9 years old) and with a very strict teacher. Plus, I have my aunt to keep her eyes on me, watching if I did it perfectly.
I got to practice many times, with the good chance that my family loves to cook dessert when each Buddhist event comes. I recommend that, when you first start, use something solid to put inside the wrap so you can control it easier.
Clay should be a good tool. Make sure you start with a big piece of banana leaf so you don’t have to worry about grasping the leaf. Just to hold it together is difficult enough.
Ok!!! Before you start with the video tutorial, prepare these:
- Banana leaves
- Clay
- Toothpick
and practice, practice, practice!
