Chepil Tamales

With one bite of these elegant tamales, the distinctive grassy flavor of the southern Mexican herb called chepil or chipilín transports me to Oaxaca. When I first encountered it, chepil was unknown in the U.S. In the last few years I’ve been amazed and delighted to find it here by the name chipilín in many Latin American grocery stores, in a good frozen version from Guatemala. There is no substitute, but if unable to find the crucial ingredient you can turn Tamal