Tamales wrapped in leaves
By Kathleen Furore
“In some dishes, authenticity is determined by the leaf. Cochinita pibil is not cochinita pibil if it is not wrapped in banana leaves. Without lime leaves lime soup is not a lime soup!”
That proclamation from Chef Enrique Cortes, executive chef of DeColores, a Mexican restaurant nestled in Chicago’s Pilsen Arts District, sums up quite simply how important it is to have culinary leaves on hand in restaurant kitchens. “They are essential to authentic Mexican cooking,” echoes Chef Hugo Ortega, the James Beard award-winning chef at Hugo’s, Caracol and Xochi, all in Houston. “So much of Mexican cooking derives from the husk, or leaves, of the corn. As corn became domesticated, that is where the diversity of its usage begins—getting people thinking of how they could use the plant in different ways, including cooking. These early civilizations made the best use of everything they could.”
Leaves’ importance in Mexico’s culinary history extends beyond food.
“Many generations ago, they also discovered that they could use the leaves to make things to make them happy, like blue agave for tequila, agave for mezcal,” Ortega adds. “In today’s life, fruits and leaves are used to distill mezcal.”
TYPE OF LEAVES
Leaves play myriad roles in Mexican cuisine: They’re great as wrappers for cooking, help elevate plate presentations, and perhaps most important, they impart a unique flavor to any dish they’re used to create.
“Corn husks and other leaves were, and are, very important to cooking underground, to wrapping proteins and vegetables to add fragrance and flavor—hierbas de olor—and to protect the food from the earth and ash,” Ortega says.
“Each type of leaf gives its own aroma, flavor, minerals and oils,” he continues. “Banana leaves get dried on a comal to release aromas and make them flexible for wrapping. Hoja santa gives a licorice flavor. Avocado leaves taste slightly of the fruit. And corn husks give an earthy flavor.”
ON THE MENU
Both of these chefs rely on a variety of leaves to bring authenticity to the menus they create.
“We use corn husks and banana leaves for tamales, avocado leaves for goat barbacoa, and hoja santa for tamales and to flavor moles,” says Ortega, who wraps fresh corn tamales (served only in September) in softened corn husks.
Corn husks have many other uses, too.
Ortega says he throws dried corn husks on the comal or grill to smoke meats or fish to make a crust of cornhusk ash and burns them to make a powder to color masa. “We also use leaves of baby corn to make ice cream—they are like pure sugar, with a very intense corn flavor,” he says.
Ortega turns to banana leaves when preparing cabrito and the suckling pig known as lechon. The achiote-braised lechon served in a banana leaf and topped with cracklings is among the favorites at Hugo’s. He says hoja santa is a key ingredient in some moles and tamales; he uses it to wrap cheese and rolls hoja santa leaves in the Barbacoa de Res de Zaachila at Xochi. Barbacoa at Hugo’s features lamb marinated in chiles, onion, garlic and avocado leaves, slow-roasted in agave skin, and served with onion, cilantro and house-made corn tortillas. Ortega also makes mixiote by wrapping meat in the membrane of the agave leaf.
Cortes wraps most of the tamales on DeColores’ menu in corn leaves, and says radish leaves are a must in his mole verde. “A key ingredient in Mexican meatballs is mint…lemon leaves for an ice cream or for a lemon reduction… and frijoles negros scream for epazote,” he adds. “And most of our caldos, soups and especially Gallina Pinta, [the traditional soup] from Sonora, Mexico must have bay leaves; we can’t cook without them.”
Kathleen Furore is the editor of el Restaurante.
SIDEBAR: Lesson in Leaves
IF YOU WANT A LESSON IN CULINARY LEAVES, visit a Mexican market, where you’ll find what Chef Hugo Ortega, the James Beard award-winning chef at Hugo’s, Caracol and Xochi, all in Houston, calls “an array of leaves” that include everything from banana and avocado leaves and corn husks to “leafy herbs that are widely used, like oregano, epazote, cilantro, Lion’s ear (wild cilantro, a leaf that’s the size of magnolia leaf), culantro (a cousin of cilantro) and many you have never seen before!” he says.
Chef Enrique Cortes, executive chef of DeColores in Chicago, offers this list of what he calls, “The 10 most used leaves in Mexican cuisine and Latin countries:”
Leaf .......................................................Common Uses
Hoja Santa.............................................Mole amarillo, scrambled eggs
Hojas de Aguacate (Avocado)...............Soups, gorditas de frijol, scrambled eggs
Hojas de Lima (lime)..............................Yucatan lime soup
Hojas de Elote (corn).............................Tamales
Hojas de Rábano (radishes)..................Green mole, pipian and arroz verde poblano
Hojas de Plátano (banana)....................Cochinita pibil, tamales Oaxaquenos, seafood
(especially fish)
Hojas de Epazote................................ Black beans
Hojas de Laurel (bay).......................... Gallina pinta, chicken soups and caldos
Hojas de Hierbabuena (mint).............. Albondigas, sopa de pollo, ice cream, mojitos
Hojas de Limón (lemon)..................... Soups, ice cream, tea reduction