Dried hoja santa leaves 10g
Piper auritum Kunth
Cooking with Hoja Santa
It is often used in Mexican cuisine for tamales, the fish or meat wrapped in fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in Mole Verde, the green sauce originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. It is also chopped to flavor soups and eggs. In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor chocolate drinks.
It is easy to cook with it, and its pleasant anise flavor with herbal, flinty overtones is easy to like. The aroma carries enough of a whiff of black pepper to remind you that the two seasonings are closely related, belonging to the same genus. The name given to the plant in the Southern United States says it all: Root Beer Plant. Crush one of the velvety, heart-shaped leaves in your hand, and you’ll understand – root beer.