The herb is used fresh in soups, salads and meat dishes; it appears in the recipe for mole verde, a Mexican herb sauce (see Mexican pepper-leaf). The most common usage is, however, in bean dishes, where the strong antiflatulent powers of epazote additionally motivate its usage. The most commonly epazote flavoured food are Mexican refried beans (frijoles refritos), beans that first get boiled until tender and then are fried in pig’s lard to give a coarse mash. Refried beans can be made of any type of small beans, with or without epazote; in Southern México, however, cooks would usually use epazote, especially for black beans. Yet epazote works well of other kinds of beans, e. g. pinto beans, which are more popular and more easily available in the US and elsewhere.
To prepare frijoles refritos, the beans are first cooked in water with epazote and other spices (garlic, onion, cumin and dried Mexican chiles or paprika). When softened, they are fried with additional epazote and maybe other spices in some pig lard until they become a smooth puree. Refried beans are often served in Tex-Mex-style restaurants, but in restaurants outside of México and the Southern US this dish is rarely prepared in the traditional way, and hardly ever contains epazote.
The dried herb is considered inferior to the fresh one, but outside Central
America and the southern parts of the US, fresh epazote may be hard to find. A
common substitute are coriander or long coriander leaves, even in México; but, to
my taste, epazote’s taste is simulated more successfully by a mixture of savory, oregano and boldo leaves. Furthermore, dried epazote is not as
bad as most sources state.
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