Recado is a marinade used to season food before and during cooking. Recados are typically spicy pastes or dry rubs. They provide a deep rich flavor to food just the way traditional U.S. dry rubs are used on steaks. The Key ingredient to almost any Mexican dish is chiles. There are more than thirty different types of chiles used in Mexican cooking and the true expert looks for not only the type but the region it was grown in and how it was prepared.
Chiles come dried, crushed, pulped or fresh.
If your not sure of your chile don't try an substitutions. Banana leaves are used as a cooking surface. The oils and anise flavor permiate foods while they cook give a wonderful flavor. If you want to try it, get a couple of banana leaves, wash them and place them directly on your cooking grate still wet. Put whatever you are cooking directly on the leaves imediately.