You can't eat authentic Southeast Asian food without this kind of plant.

I wanted to write about this plant two years ago. After all, peony is often ridiculed as a "Thai native" by friends, but I don't know if it is because of Mercury retrograde (a good pot is thrown out), my heart is always attracted by other things, leading to procrastination.

Then, the days are getting hotter and hotter, and the heart that wants to cook Thai food is getting more and more cracked, isn't it because I miss this unique aroma?

If you are also a food lover in Southeast Asia, you should know what I am talking about, late at night, talk about something lethal ~ (a Thai song sent to Daga)

{Shaoyao girl Vol.819}

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A must for a woman to mess with her.

Having a big heart, he boasted that he would cook a meal of Southeast Asian food for his friends, but everything else was easy, but citronella and vanilla leaves were not easy to buy. Fortunately, there was a store in the east, so I quickly issued an order, which was only about ten yuan. I didn't give it away, and I put together a bunch of things I didn't have.

When I got home every few days, I emptied the box and found that all those who made the order were there, and the spices missed ┓ ('? `) ┏.

The businessman asked me, "do you choose a refund or a reissue?" …… I am so angry that I have an entanglement disorder. How do you want me to choose Ang?

It is no easier for Thais to cook than the Chinese. They spend half a day chopping vegetables, chopping a bunch of unnamed spices, chopping them into small pieces and drifting with a unique aroma. I'm afraid only they can accurately handle this kind of complex matching scheme and weight calculation.

This kind of cuisine, which needs to be mixed with more than ten tropical spices and tastes sour, sweet and spicy, is generally called "Niangjia cuisine" and is widely popular in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

It's no exaggeration to say that it doesn't matter if you don't have time for a holiday, as long as you have a meal and a cup of tea, and you are in Phuket at home. Peony likes to drink tea with citronella (also known as lemon grass) and mango glutinous rice. Put a little vanilla leaf when cooking. Once you get used to the aroma of this plant, your mouth and memory will change.

Of course, mango glutinous rice without vanilla leaves is also delicious, but blindly sweet and waxy, losing the sense of hierarchy, this kind of gradual and orderly integration seems to have a different sense of hierarchy, which is the essence of Niangjia cuisine.

This is the "little green grass" ~

Take fresh vanilla leaves

To embellish or spread on a meal.

He's a visual killer no matter how he looks.

(the picture is from the user in the lower kitchen @ Shanpangpang)

Thais like to wrap things with vanilla leaves very much. I remember seeing rows of things for the first time in Chiang Mai Night Market. They were still thinking: do you want to eat this leaf or not?

We like to use ropes. Thais use toothpicks.

It is also a kind of strange wisdom.

Vanilla leaves have many aliases, also known as "seven-leaf orchid leaf", "Banlan leaf", "fragrant forest", "blue blood tree" and "fragrant dew pocket". In Indonesia, they call it "Pandan". It sounds like "Panda" and is easy to be blinded.

"Pandan" in Indonesia generally refers to plants of the genus Ampelopsis, whose leaves are long and narrow, often gather at the top of branches, with sharp edges, and are mostly distributed in the tropics of the Old World.

Wild plants of the genus Aristolochia

Ampelopsis grossedentata rarely blossoms, but it bears bright fruit

Some are called "Lin Tou Guo", and some are called "wild pineapple".

Can buy in the local market to eat, unexpectedly can also make a handstring.

Because the leaves are tough, the leaves are often woven into mats or baskets, and vanilla is one of the special varieties. Its leaves are almost serrated, mainly cultivated, and are able to climb onto the dinner table with its unique aroma and become the "white moonlight" in the hearts of diners.

Knotting, shredding, shredding or the whole package of food are all ways of closely combining vanilla with food. Among the many heavy-flavored spices in Southeast Asia, vanilla leaves are definitely a clear flow, and for this reason, adjustment and balance is the main role given to it by nature. After spicy, there is a hint of fragrance and a little aftertaste, but can not be found everywhere, is the contribution of vanilla leaves.

It is said that there are several dishes that everyone is familiar with, such as the "coconut sago cake" that must be ordered every time I go to a Thai restaurant, and the outer circle of green leaves is vanilla leaves.

Every time I eat this dessert, I will smell fresh rice.

At first, I will feel that the glutinous rice with coconut milk tastes so delicious.

If there seems to be no rice fragrance, it is actually the smell of vanilla leaves.

Another dish that you can often eat is "vanilla leaf wrapped chicken". The vanilla leaf is crispy on the outside, but there is also a tenacity of vegetation inside, with distinct meridians and collaterals. you can choose to take apart the chicken directly, or you can eat the whole vanilla leaf and savor a touch of "Jiao Mi Xiang".

If you want to make "vanilla leaf wrapped chicken" at home, there is no problem with Chinese stewed chicken. The difficulty lies in where to get such complete and green vanilla leaves.

Give you a small teaching chart for friendship

Another kind of practice similar to "vanilla wrapped chicken", a little rice and a little meat, call it "Southeast Asian zongzi" ~

The famous Singaporean dish "Laksa" also contains vanilla leaves, which are used to cook curry and have a good flavor effect.

In addition to Titian, it can also be mixed into juice to mix color, either sweet or salty. There is a kind of "sweet pancake fruit" in Indonesia, called Kueh Dadar. The crust is mixed with chicken eggs, vanilla leaf juice and fried, stuffed with salty shredded coconut and cream.

Another Indonesian soup wrapped in shredded coconut is also mixed with vanilla leaf juice and tastes like glutinous rice paste.

And the "Banlan cake", which has become more and more popular in recent years, is also made of vanilla leaves. (talkative reminder: it is normal to turn green slightly, but if it is too green, it must be caused by pigment.

Malay, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore have become accustomed to the love of vanilla leaf. They not only regard it as a good friend of food, but also use it for other purposes, such as folding it into containers, holding sauces, or mixing it with flower gifts to the gods.

It's all because they smell good and unique.

In the memory of Paeonia, there is also a Singaporean delicacy that has to be mentioned-"coconut". Although it is also called coconut jam, there are vanilla leaves in it.

The first time I heard this word was in a movie, "when Hainan meets Chaozhou".

The accent is a little terrible.

Although the three protagonists are worried about their appearance, they are quite interesting.

Told a love story that is neither male nor female

After watching it, I am willing to aftertaste it many times. It is a good movie.

Chen Hongcai and Li Zhaomin are business actors who usually have their own jobs, and the film is filmed on weekends. Yang Yanyan is the queen of the film, and her performance is really good.

At the end of the movie, the heroine's ex-girlfriend chose to leave completely on her birthday, leaving this pair of misplaced men and women, who thought they would be lonely to death in this life, unexpectedly obtained some kind of complementarity and comfort, with a warm gesture. Finished a coconut sauce together.

Beat the eggs and sift them.

Pour into the pot and slowly add sugar and coconut milk

Boil slowly in the form of cooking and keep stirring.

Wash the vanilla leaves, tie the knots and throw them into the pot.

Stir in one direction every 10 minutes

Until the foam disappears and boils thick.

When canned, you can wipe the bread.

It can be eaten for a long time in the refrigerator.

That's why I remember "coconut" for many years.

Wonder what that smells like.

I saw it in Hainan Chicken Restaurant in Shanghai many years later.

Right away, I know it myself.

I didn't eat coconut.

It's the kind of sign that has long been planted in my heart.

The hope of finally growing and sprouting.

END