Leaf wraps are a natural for the grill
from https://www.latimes.com/

Also see Grilling Packets

In the beautiful economy of the forest -- or the urban backyard garden -- leaves are nature’s brilliant cookware. Banana leaves can be cut down to make plates or unfurled into wrappers perfect for steaming fish on a low-slung grill. Fig trees and grapevines yield leaves the exact size for enclosing, then grilling, a cube of feta, a recumbent sardine or a mint-studded lamb meatball. Before the invention of tinfoil or grilling baskets, pragmatic cooks picked their kitchen supplies from nature and found what they needed.

The litany of leaves that works for steaming or grilling is a long one: fig and banana leaves, betel leaves in Vietnamese cuisine and shiso leaves in Japanese. There are tamales in their corn husk coverings, and cabbage leaves in Eastern European recipes.

Fig Leaves

Blanched or grilled, fig leaves give up a spicy register, a subtle undertone of coconut; they’re blissfully fragrant wrappers for lamb meatballs. Just roll up the meatballs in the blanched leaves, skewer them and toss the kebabs on the grill. To serve, unroll the slightly charred leaves and dip the fragrant meatballs into a cool cucumber-mint raita.

Tanis, co-chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, likes to cook fish -- halibut, salmon, “most white-fleshed, boneless fish fillets” -- in fig leaves, which keep the fish moist and perfume it simultaneously. He’ll use simple seasoning (salt and pepper, a good olive oil, garlic, maybe fresh thyme) and then just wrap the leaf around the fish. “If you’re grilling, you get the protection [of the leaf], and all that grilly flavor.”

Fanny Singer had a fig tree in her backyard as a child, and her mother — Alice Waters of Chez Panisse — used the leaves to wrap salmon, lending the fish a smoky, fruity flavor. The baked leaves taste like the best vegetable chips ever.

Brush a large rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Overlap the leaves on the baking sheet to form an oval 4 inches larger than the salmon fillet. Season with salt and pepper. Set the salmon on the leaves, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Fold the leaves over the top of the salmon and cover with more leaves if needed. Brush the leaves with more olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake the salmon for about 20 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through and the leaves are crisp.

Banana Leaves

Banana leaves play an important role in Vietnamese cuisine -- they’re used as a wrapper for sticky rice dumplings and whole fish -- and the technique is easily adapted to California cooking. During cooking, banana leaves yield cool faint notes of tea and anise that complement fish. Coat a wedge of halibut with a quick sauce of cilantro and lime, garlic and chiles, then double-wrap the fish in banana leaves and grill. The outer leaves may char a bit, but the inner layer keeps the fish beautifully moist -- and serves as an ad hoc platter.

Banana leaves are available fresh or frozen at Asian markets and in many grocery stores

Grape Leaves

Grape leaves are another common leaf used for cooking, and perhaps the most familiar. They’re essential in Greek and Middle-Eastern cooking and, unlike banana and fig leaves -- which are used only as wrappers -- grape leaves are eaten along with their contents. Although you can use fresh grape leaves (if you do, pick young leaves that have not been sprayed with pesticides and blanch them), brined grape leaves are readily available. And they’re not just for dolmades, the little meticulously wrapped bundles often filled with lamb and rice and braised in broth.

Cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman includes a wonderful recipe for grilled grape leaves stuffed with feta cheese in her new cookbook, “Mediterranean Harvest.” Shulman’s recipe is simple yet well articulated, a lovely juxtaposition of flavor and texture.

Brined grape leaves are first blanched to remove some of the salt and to further tenderize them, then wrapped around cubes of firm feta. The little bundles are threaded on wooden skewers, brushed lightly with olive oil, and briefly grilled. The grape leaves, crisped and faintly charred, have a spice and crunch that highlight the smooth beauty of melting feta. Throw a bunch of red grapes on the grill too: The bursts of winey flavor are a perfect counterpoint to the little kebabs.

On a recent menu Chez Panisse’s Tanis offered sardines grilled in grape leaves, with parsley and lemon salad.

Brined grape leaves can be found in the international section of your grocery store or at Mediterranean or Middle-Eastern markets.

How to Prepare Leaves

Snip off the woody stem of grape or fig leaves; remove the fibrous inner stalk of banana leaves. If you’re picking fresh, choose young leaves, which are more supple, or blanch the leaves briefly in boiling water. You don’t have to blanch the leaves, but it makes them easier to work with -- and brings out their aromas. Then just match the flavors and characteristics of the leaves with what you’re wrapping inside.

With any extra leaves, try throwing together a quick extra course. Wrap half a peach drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon in a fig leaf, or fold a handful of market vegetables -- with a splash of olive oil and a brief rain of sea salt -- inside a banana leaf. A few minutes on the grill and they’re done.