Taro Leaves in Coconut Milk

Having decided we were well overdue for a little research shopping, Mo and I popped down to Rusholme the other day - not quite as exotic as Kerala, but equally vibrant and bursting with tempting vegetables.  Heading straight for our favourite store, Ravi’s, I got rather side-tracked by the wonderful purple carrots (so much more flavour) and fresh curry leaves (so addictive and fortunately easy to freeze) while Mo  as usual, left to her own devices, made new friends. The result…. a great recipe from ‘The Reverend’ using an ingredient I had never heard of before – taro leaves. Hard to describe, but rather like a larger, tougher spinach leaf and a lovely delicate flavour.

Ravi Rev’s Rusholme Recipe

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Ingredients

10-12 taro leaves

1 can coconut milk

2 large tomatoes, sliced

1 lemon sliced

1 bunch spring onions, sliced

2 chillies, sliced (or to taste!)

salt & pepper

Serves 3-4

First of all wash the leaves and remove the tough stem. Pat dry. Roughly shred the leaves, they will reduce in much the same way as spinach.

Line a medium sized casserole dish with plenty of foil so that you will be able to enclose all the ingredients as if in an envelope. Then place all the taro leaves on the bottom, then place in layers on top the tomatoes, lemon slices, spring onions and chillies. Finally pour over the coconut milk to cover (make sure you shake the can well before opening so that there are no big blobs of coconut cream) and season.

Bring the foil up over the dish so that it completely covers the ingredients and then fold the sides together to seal in the flavours.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (Gas4/180C) for about 30-40 minutes. This works perfectly as a side dish, but make sure you also have some carbs (noodles or rice are best) to absorb the luscious juices.