It's unassuming. It's plain. But it's oh so tasty. Yes, the humble dasheen leaf can do more than just jump into a pot of delicious callaloo that's placed on your Sunday table. After all, there were days when you didn't have enough ingredients to add to the callaloo; which meant that you had to get creative. This gave birth to many dishes incorporating the dasheen leaf. But before getting into the leaves, we need to look at the entire dasheen plant itself. According to Wikipedia's entry on the plant, the dasheen known by another name; taro. "...In contrast to the smaller corms called "eddo" in the English speaking countries of the West Indies, it is cultivated and consumed as a staple crop in the region. In the Spanish speaking countries of the Spanish West Indies it is called ñame, the Portuguese variant is called inhame, which is used in former Portuguese colonies where taro is still cultivated, including the Azores and Brazil.
In Puerto Rico, it is sometimes called "malanga". In some countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, the leaves of the Dasheen, or Taro, are most often pureed into a thick soup called callaloo. Callaloo is sometimes prepared with crab and crab legs in it, coconut milk, pumpkin and okra. It is usually served with rice." What they should have also included is that the dasheen plant is more than just a callaloo ingredient, as it is used in many other applications in this country, two of which are our Eye Food recipes this week. One of these, Saheina, is a popular Indian delicacy that's sometimes sold by street vendors and also eaten on holidays such as Divali. The other, dasheen and rice, is a variant of 'bhaji rice', which is another home favourite.
Happy cooking!
Spicy Saheina
Ingredients
1 lb ground dhal
1 lb all purpose flour
Pinch or two of saffron powder
1 teaspoon yeast dissolved in ½ cup of water with 1 teaspoon of sugar
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons ground geera
1 medium onion, minced finely
8 cloves of garlic, minced finely
1 medium-sized bundle of dasheen bush, washed
Water for mixing
2 to 3 cups oil for frying
Method
Wash and clean the dasheen leaves and remove the hard parts. Peel stalks, and then cut up everything very fine. (You can also pulse this in a food processor.)
Mix the all purpose flour, ground dhal, salt and saffron powder and salt, along with the onion, geera, garlic and dissolved yeast mixture.
Add in the dasheen bush and mix thoroughly.
Add water and mix to a soft, yet sticky consistency.
Cover and leave to rise for no more than one hour.
After it has risen, heat the oil in a deep, heavy duty pan on medium high.
Wet your fingers and pinch off tablespoon sized balls of the mixture; flatten them out and deep-fry a few of them in hot oil until they are golden-brown on both sides, approximately 2 to 4 minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon and drain them on kitchen towel paper.
Serve with a Mango Chutney Dip or Tamarind sauce.
Dasheen Rice
Ingredients
2 tablespoons cooking oil
About 12 to 15 young dasheen leaves, roughly chopped
½ a large onion, chopped
2 red pimento peppers, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, grated
¼ teaspoon habanero pepper, minced and minus seeds
Salt to taste
2 cups brown rice, washed
¾ cup pumpkin, diced
1 packet coconut milk powder, mixed to 2 cups
according to package directions
Black pepper
Method
Heat your saucepan on medium high and add the cooking oil.
When heated, add the onion, pimento peppers and garlic and quickly sauté.
Put in the dasheen leaves and let them wilt down, stirring gently.
Add in the habanero pepper and stir again.
Next, add in the rice and chopped pumpkin and stir.
Pour in the 2 cups of coconut milk and stir
to incorporate.
Lower the heat to a simmer and cook covered for 12 to 15 minutes. Check the rice in between to make sure the liquid doesn't evaporate before the rice is cooked. If it's evaporating quicker than it should, add a ¼ to a ½ cup of water and stir again.
Taste for seasoning; add a little more salt and black pepper and let it cook uncovered for a few minutes more.
Serve hot.