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Recipes with palm hearts

4 recipes that use palm hearts, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Ensalada de chonta, takes 15 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, banana leaves and spring onion.

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Maito de tilapia

Maito is how Kichwa and Shuar cooks along the rivers around Puyo and Tena prepare fish: seasoned simply with salt, garlic and palm heart, wrapped in big bijao leaves and laid over glowing coals until the parcel blackens and the fish steams in its own juices. Banana leaves, sold frozen in Asian and Latin shops, work just as well at home. It comes to the table in its leaves with boiled sweet cassava, a fiery ají and a cup of guayusa. The common mistake is wrapping the fish in stiff leaves, which split and let the juices escape; soften them over a flame first. Chef's tip: open one parcel to check: the fish is ready when the flesh is opaque and lifts cleanly off the bone.

45 minAndeanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ayampaco

From Macas and the Shuar communities of Morona Santiago comes ayampaco: chicken with palm heart, garlic, culantro and spring onion wrapped in bijao leaves and cooked over the fire, so everything steams together into a fragrant, juicy bundle. It is a celebration dish at festivals and family gatherings, served with boiled cassava and a sharp chilli sauce. Banana leaves stand in for bijao at home. The usual mistake is packing the parcels too full, so the middle stays undercooked; keep them flat and check the chicken reaches 74 °C. Chef's tip: let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so the garlic and herbs flavour it right through.

75 minAndeanChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ensalada de chonta

Iquitos restaurants and the riverside cafés of the Peruvian Amazon serve ensalada de chonta as a cool counterpoint to grilled fish and juanes: long, pale ribbons of fresh palm heart, crisp and faintly sweet, tossed with tomato, avocado, red onion and lots of lime. At Belén market you can watch sellers shave the chonta into curls with a big knife. Outside the Amazon, fresh palm heart is hard to find, but good jarred hearts of palm cut into thin strips work well, and the salad becomes a ten-minute job. It's crunchy, juicy and sharp, perfect with rice and beans or any fried snack. Where most people go wrong is adding the avocado and salt early, so the salad turns soupy and grey; dress it at the last moment. Chef's tip: slice the palm hearts lengthwise on a mandoline or with a peeler for thin, curling ribbons that look like the Iquitos original.

15 minPeruvianSaladsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cuscuz paulista

Nothing like North African couscous, cuscuz paulista is a moulded cake of corn flakes cooked in a rich tomato sauce, packed into a ring mould decorated with sardines, sliced egg, tomato, palm hearts and peas, then turned out so the pattern shows. São Paulo bakeries and family lunches serve it cold or at room temperature, in slices, for birthdays, Easter and Sunday tables. It is moist, savoury and tangy, with bursts of olive and fish. It needs at least an hour to set in the fridge, so it is perfect to make the day before. The thing that most often goes wrong is a mixture that is too dry, which crumbles when turned out; it should look like soft, wet polenta before it goes into the mould. For a vegetarian version, skip the sardines and add extra palm hearts. Chef's tip: oil the mould generously and press the decoration against the sides firmly, so it sticks to the cuscuz and not the tin.

55 minBrazilianRice & Grains
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with palm hearts