A few months ago, I was at my favourite Thai grocery store picking up some kaffir lime leaves when I noticed they had frozen packages of pandan leaves. I’ve had pandan flavoured dishes before, but I’d never actually seen the leaves. Curiosity perked, I threw the package into the basket. Upon getting home, my newly discovered pandan leaves found themselves in the freezer where over time, they were covered over in layers of other shiny new ingredients, until they were all but forgotten.
During a recent expedition into the frozen depths of the my freezer, I decided to do something with the 4lbs of rib tips I’d picked up for $1.29/lb at Fresh Direct. Digging a little further I uncovered a corner of something curiously green. Tossing aside some chicken thighs, a puck of pie dough, and some frozen strawberries, I uncovered a slightly frosty bag of bright green pandan leaves. “Perfect!” I thought.
In case you’re not familiar with pandan, they’re the leaves of the pandanus plant, which grows all over Asia, going by names such as screw pine (English), cây cơm nếp (Vietnamese), and Nioi-takonoki (Japanese). It’s commonly used in both desserts and savoury dishes in Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, and other Southeast Asian cuisines, adding an earthy green flavour to everything it touches. The flowers and fruit are also used and the leaves are even woven into bags and mats.
Since I’ve never cooked with pandan before, I knew this experiment could go horribly wrong, but my fears were quickly allayed as the earthy tea-like smell of the roasting pandan wafted through my apartment. This was soon joined by the smell of smoky savoury pork and as the day passed, the aroma grew sweeter and more intense, sending me into a dizzying spell of hunger pangs.
Five hours later, I was rewarded for my patience by a mound of steaming pork with a depth of flavour I wouldn’t have though possible given that it was only seasoned with smoked salt and pandan leaves. I served this with rice and lomi lomi salmon which made for a perfect balance of colours and flavours. While the meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, it was a little hard to eat due to all the bone and cartilage, so next time I’m going to try using pork butt.
As I was cleaning up, I noticed there was a lot of caramelized brown goodness at the bottom of the pandan weave. Thinking it was a shame to waste all that fond, I tossed all the leaves into a pot with a few cups of water and cooked it for 20 minutes. The result was a mahogany brown pork stock that was the liquid version of what I’d just eaten. The next day, I tossed the leftover pork in a rice cooker with the stock, rice, tomato, chili peppers, garlic, cumin and cinnamon. It was delicious.
Ingredients
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4
pork pork chunks butt or other well marbled cut of cut into large chunks
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sea salt smoked
Steps
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Put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 275 degrees F.
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Lay down a wide piece of aluminum foil on a roasting pan and assemble a 7 x 7 weave of pandan leaves.
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Add the pork and sprinkle generously with smoked salt, turning the pork several times to ensure the pieces are well coated. Fold the ends of the pandan over the pork, continuing the weave to cover the meat. Wrap the foil around the entire bundle, sealing loosely at the top so steam can escape.
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Put it in the oven for 4-5 hours or until the pork is fork tender.
Gera says
You’ve had so many patience with the smoky-flavorful pork but at last you were awarded indeed!
I’m sure it must taste absolutely delicious–gorgeous work, Marc 🙂
Cheers!
Gera
Elra says
I love pandan leaves. In Bali, beside for cooking, they also use this for offering. First they take layers of the leave, then slice them into super thin strips. Sprinkle this on top of the flowers for the offering to God. I miss the smell sometimes. I can only get them frozen here, so it doesn’t have the same fragrant as the fresh one.
I must admit that your recipe is really unusual and very creative too. Pork sounds absolutely delicious Marc.
Cheers,
Elra
Natasha aka 5 Star Foodie says
That pork has to come out super flavorful! Great recipe!
steamy kitchen says
pork belly! lovin’ your blog more and more…
jaden
Elra says
I love pandan leaves. In Bali, beside for cooking, they also use this for offering. First they take layers of the leave, then slice them into super thin strips. Sprinkle this on top of the flowers for the offering to God. I miss the smell sometimes. I can only get them frozen here, so it doesn’t have the same fragrant as the fresh one.
I must admit that your recipe is really unusual and very creative too. Pork sounds absolutely delicious Marc.
Cheers,
Elra
Just Cook It says
Looks, and sounds, amazing.
Just Cook It says
Looks, and sounds, amazing.
veggiebelly says
Beautiful! You have me salivating at the “earthy tea like smell” description! Ive been curious about pandan for a while now, I’m so glad you posted this. I’m wondering if I can roast veggies and tofu this way..hmmm…
veggiebelly says
Beautiful! You have me salivating at the “earthy tea like smell” description! Ive been curious about pandan for a while now, I’m so glad you posted this. I’m wondering if I can roast veggies and tofu this way..hmmm…
banu gökşin - tule - istanbul says
looks great very different
delicious
banu gökşin - tule - istanbul says
looks great very different
delicious
katiek says
OOOOOH. I just made Cochinita pibil, a yucatecan banana leaf wrapped pork which is smothered in ground annatto seeds and other spices.
I cooked it low and slow too!
It turned out beautifully – a sort of confit.
But then I imagined thai flavors for wrapped pork and my imagination took off. Nice to see that some people are thinking just what i’m thinking…
Next time I will try and dig a hole in the ground.
katiek says
OOOOOH. I just made Cochinita pibil, a yucatecan banana leaf wrapped pork which is smothered in ground annatto seeds and other spices.
I cooked it low and slow too!
It turned out beautifully – a sort of confit.
But then I imagined thai flavors for wrapped pork and my imagination took off. Nice to see that some people are thinking just what i’m thinking…
Next time I will try and dig a hole in the ground.