"krusty kritter" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Wayne Lundberg wrote:
> > Penjas are the leaves of the maguey plant. You wrap the lamb in the
leaves
---snip---

> The other day, I just happened to tune in on a cooking program on TV
> and the cook was making pozole using ingredients like epazote and hoja
> santa. He said that I could mail order a live plant of the latter herb
> and grow my own. It has big wide leaves like a fig tree. He said that
> it gave a taste like sassafrass to the pozole.
>
> Does growing my own hoja santa sound worthwhile?

As to the maguey 'leaves' they are hard to come by and really not worth the
effort when using modern steamers and the like. Barbacoa was, and still is,
cooked in the traditional way on weekends at special restaurants and
eateries around Mexico City. It's a national favorite.

But for those of us living away from the sources of many of the stuff
used... we make do through alternatives. My Barbacoa is pretty darned good
according to those who eat it and I've never used the maguey. I will add
some avocado leaves because I have a tree in the back yard and the leaves
are handy. But the key is to slow cook the meat and retain as much of the
juice as you can within the meat, not so much drippings, although the
drippings make a great consome which when garnished with squeezed little
green limes, oregano, red chile, salt and pepper, maybe a slice of
avocado... makes for a great appetizer before the main meal. Which by the
way, should be eaten as tacos. Barbacoa is a taco filler and should be
pinched and laid in the middle of a taco, to which you add your salsa, then
roll it and eat like a Coney Island hot dog... leaning forward, capturing
the drippings, and lots of napkins handy.

As to herbs... heck, I'd plant as many herbs as you can afford and play with
them when the smell and taste is just right. I've got rosemary, basil,
oregano, chives, cilantro, verdolaga and I don't know what else growing
outside my kitchen window and garden. Sometimes it's a thrill just to pinch
a bit of lavender to smell... or rosemary even if it does not go into the
food.

There is one herb I don't have and will have to get, and that is epazote to
put into my beans. I don't know what it's called in the botanical sense nor
English. On my to-do list now.

Wayne