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krusty kritter
 
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Default Pencas de maguey asados?


Wayne Lundberg wrote:
> Penjas are the leaves of the maguey plant. You wrap the lamb in the leaves
> that have been lightly roasted to amke them easy to handle, and that helps
> keep the meat moist and insulates from the hot coals used to heat the hole
> where it will be cooked overnight. Usually they tie the leaves with string
> and serve the kilos of meat still steaming so you, the customer, cut the
> string and unwrap the leaves opening to the still steaming and most
> delicious meat ever. In your version the cooking is done in a large steamer
> and the maguey leaves acting as blankets, and the result will be very much
> like the original cooking method used around the Valley of Mexico since
> before Columbus ever saw his first native American.


I suppose the maguey leaves are just thrown away then? Do the maguey
leaves add any distinctive traces of flavor at all?

I found that recipe in the local Spanish language newspaper and, while
I just might be able to find maguey leaves in one of the Mexican
groceries around here, I wonder if it would even be worth the effort.

Maybe I could just make a smaller amount of barbacoa in an oven
roasting bag?

I often wonder what is essential to the dish I'm trying to make and
what is actually superfluous.

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?