Authentic Mexican flavours – spice up your cooking with home-grown herbs
 (Read 250+ times)
By Madeleine Giddens
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With just a little care and attention, you can grow some of the herbs needed for Mexican cooking in your backyard. A collection of just four easy-to-grow herbs, two that will be very familiar and two that are less well-known, can bring an authentic Mexican note to meals throughout the growing season.
Hierba buena
Hierba buena is used as a flavouring in many Mexican dishes, including Caldo de Pollo (chicken soup), and also for mint tea and other cooling drinks. It’s well-known in many kitchen gardens – as spearmint, an indispensable culinary herb.
Like all mints, spearmint is a hardy plant that is very easy to grow – in many cases, stopping it is the problem! Mints spread rapidly and can quickly take over an herb garden if they’re not kept under control. Try planting your mints in containers, or bottomless buckets, to keep them in check.
Mints love moist soil, and will tolerate shade. If you want a year-round supply then divide plants in the autumn and pot up sections to bring inside. Mints growing in containers need to be divided annually anyway – the plants become unhappy when their roots are touching the sides of the pot.
Cilantro
The keynote herb in Mexican cooking is another widely grown favourite – cilantro, also known as coriander. Unlike spearmint, cilantro is a tender plant and won’t survive a frost. It’s an annual, and you’ll have to grow a fresh supply from seed each spring. In fact, it’s best to sow a few seeds every few weeks if you want a continuous supply – cilantro is famous for bolting (running to seed), and flowering plants need to be replaced.
To keep your plants in leaf for as long as possible, choose a variety that has been bred for leaf production and is marked as ‘slow to bolt’ or ‘bolt resistant’. Keep your plants well fed and watered and harvest the leaves regularly to promote fresh growth.
Again, you can pot up a plant and bring it indoors for a winter supply of cilantro, or you can preserve an abundant harvest by making cilantro ice cubes.
Epazote
The first of our less well-known Mexican herbs is Epazote, a real Mexican native. Epazote is renowned for being an acquired taste – one sniff of its very pungent leaves may well put you off, but when used sparingly the leaves add a distinctive savoury note to dishes of beans, cheese or eggs. They have the added advantage of reducing the ‘gassiness’ of bean-based meals.
Epazote is a perennial, grown from seed in spring. Germination takes between one and two weeks, and the plants can grow up to 4 feet tall during the summer. You can start harvesting leaves as early as 45 days after sowing.
Epazote likes a sunny spot and well-drained soil, but it doesn’t appreciate arid conditions, so don’t leave it out when you’re doing your watering. Regular harvesting or pruning encourages fresh growth and discourages bolting. If it’s a new flavour for you, then remember that the younger leaves are milder!
This is another herb with the potential to become invasive under the right conditions, so try to remove the flowers before it sets seed.
Papalo
Papalo is another Mexican native, often found growing wild, and another strongly flavoured herb. It is added raw to tacos and salsas or added only at the very end of cooking for other dishes.
Papalo is a large plant, able to grow up to 6 feet tall in ideal conditions and needing a spacing of at least 2 feet. An annual, grown from seed each spring, it likes a sunny position and well-drained soil.
The leaves are always used fresh, as they don’t keep their flavour well when dried, and can be harvested from midsummer onwards.
If you’re a fan of Mexican food then try making a home for one or two of these herbs in your kitchen garden. Served with home-grown corn, beans and tomatoes, they’ll really hit the spot!
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Author Bio Box: Madeleine Giddens
The author is a herb enthusiast who has studied herbs for over 7 years and focuses on their gardening, cooking and craft uses. If you would like to receive inspiring herb gardening, cooking and craft hints, tips and recipes in her FREE monthly newsletter plus receive a FREE report '7 Everyday Herbs Made Simple', please visit the author's website: http://www.madaboutherbs.co.uk or her blog at: http://madaboutherbs.typepad.com
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