This is a New Year's main course dish. It is a rendition of a special food for the Mother of Fishes, Iemanjá, in Bahia-Brazil. Here it is dressed up in more warrior attire then usual. Some should be set aside for her and taken to her if at all possible. It goes well with the traditional African American New Year's meal of black-eyed peas with ham hocks, greens, cornbread and corn. Add a dish of yellow crook-neck squash to make space for the fish.
Ingredients:
2 packages of Banana leaves
Jar of pink peppercorns
1 bunch Fresh cilantro
4 Red bell peppers
Sea salt
1 liter Spring water
6 Shallots
Fish fillets of either orange roughie, red snapper, or tilapia
Twine
Rinse and drain fish. Wash banana leaves, cilantro, and bell peppers.
Thinly slice bell peppers and shallots length-wise.
On an open banana leaf, place 3 sprigs of cilantro, two slice of bell pepper and shallots. Place the fish on top then place on top of fish, 7 peppercorns, 3 more sprigs of cilantro, more bell pepper and shallots. Wrap seasoned fish in the leaf by rolling shut, then folding ends. Secure with 2 small pieces of twine, like a parcel. Repeat until all the fish is prepped.
In a pasta cooker or large double boiler with sieve-like second pan, bring to a slow boil the spring water. Add sea salt to water. Add second part of pan. Once top pan begins to sweat, add 4 fish packets. Steam until the smell of fish becomes stronger than the smell of banana leaves.
Unwrap right before serving. This dish should be prepared last since it cooks very quickly--about 5 - 7 minutes in the steamer.
This twist on Iemanjá's food can be used as an offering to her Kukuna mermaid sister, Hina lau limu kala, who protects the priests who use the power of the sea.
2 packs banana leaves
1 box of round toothpicks
1 jar mixed peppercorns
'Alaea (a Hawai'ian traditional baked sea salt with clay)
Small bowl of virgin olive oil
2 bunches fresh cilantro
4 medium red bell peppers
1 liter spring water (or Artesian water from the Pacific islands)
10 shallots
10 Ono (Wahoo) steaks
Carefully wash the banana leaves, cilantro, and bell peppers. While the veggies dry, thinly slice the shallots and place in a bowl. Sort the peppercorns into saucers; pink, green, white, black. Now thinly slice the bell peppers. Rinse and drain fish, set aside.
Take a banana leaf about 11 inches long, brush one side with olive oil then place in order: 2 pink peppercorns, 4 slices shallots, 6 sprigs cilantro, 2 slices red bell pepper, fish steak. Rub a pinch of 'Alaea and two pinches of crushed white peppercorns directly onto fish then reverse the order of the fresh seasonings.
Fold the banana leaf lengthwise first, carefully working so as to not rip the leaf (it takes practice, so don't despair). It will look like a long tube, but the leaf should be tightly round the fish and seasonings. You may insert a toothpick in the middle of the tube like a stitch to hold the leaf shut. If there is plenty room on the ends of the tube, then go ahead and roll up the ends of the tube inserting one toothpick at each end, again, like a stitch.[image series, step by step]
Repeat until all fish steaks are wrapped.
Steam cook the packets as above, but do not add the sea salt to the boiling water.
Serve with Couve (Brazilian collard green salad), or any bitter green salad, shredded carrots and beets with sliced cucumber.
Recipes from _Workings: New Wives' Tales for a New Millennium_ by Anna B. Scott/Ibeshe Tchula (c) 2002