Avocado leaf ✦

Feuille d’avocatier

What it is

Only the Mexican race of avocado has a scented leaf; crush a West Indian one and it smells of nothing at all. The compound responsible is estragole, the same molecule that makes tarragon taste of tarragon, and it is why a pot of black beans in Oaxaca tastes unlike a pot of black beans anywhere else.

In the kitchen

Toast the dry leaf on a bare pan, ten seconds a side, until it smells of hazelnut, then drop it in whole and fish it out before serving. Untoasted it tastes of hay; a few seconds too long and it tastes of ash.

Goes with

Black bean Chili pepper Pork Corn Tomato Lime

Same species

Avocado Avocado oil

Also used with

Ayocote bean

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