Mexico Cooks!

Ponche Navideño :: Hot Christmas Punch, Excellent All Winter Long

Mexico's fragrant, delicious ponche navideño--Christmas punch, served hot.  Loaded with seasonal fruits and sweet spices, it's a do-not-miss at our Christmas festivities and is often served throughout the winter season, which is downright chilly in the Mexican highlands.  The recipe is simple and the rewards are many; you, your family, and your holiday guests will love it as much as all of us do.  Photo courtesy México Desconocido.

At nearly every winter party in Mexico, you'll find a big vat of steaming hot, homemade ponche navideño.  Served with or without a piquete (a shot of rum, tequila, or other alcohol), this marvelous drink will warm you from the inside out.  Really, it wouldn't be Christmas (or a posada, or New Year's Eve) without it.  Here's the recipe I've used for years.  

Ponche Navideño Mexicano**
**You should be able to buy everything on this list at your local Latin market

2 pounds sugar cane, peeled and cut into 3” sticks
1 pound apples, cored and cut into thin slices or chunks
1 pound pears, cored and cut into thin slices or chunks--Bosc are excellent for this
10 ripe guavas, cut in quarters and seeded
Peel of one orange 
1 pound tejocotes, cut in quarters and seeded
1/2 pound tamarind fruit removed from the pods and deveined
1/2 pound prunes with or without seeds
2 ounces dried jamaica flowers
2 cloves
1 star anise pod (optional)
1 kilo piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar)
1/2 cup white sugar (optional)
2 long sticks Mexican cinnamon, broken in thirds or quarters

6 quarts of water or more

Special Equipment
A 12-to-14 quart lidded pot
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Before you start cutting up fruit, put 6 quarts of water in a pot, cover it, and over high heat, heat it until it boils.  

Add all the cut fruit to the pot and bring the pot back to a boil.  Then lower to simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.  If you think the pot needs more water, bring it to a boil separately and add it little by little.

Add the tamarind, the prunes, the jamaica, the cloves, the piloncillo, the white sugar, the cinnamon, and continue to simmer until all of the fruit is soft and tender. 

We usually ask our adult guests if they'd like their ponche con piquete (with alcohol--rum, tequila, etc).  Add a shot to each cup as requested, prior to adding the ponche.

Serves 12 to 15.  If you have some left over, save it (fruit and all) till the next day and re-heat.  Ponche navideño is even better the second day!
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Sugar cane is in season right now!  On the left, you see it in the already-peeled cut-to-size "sticks" you want for your ponche.  On the right, you see the unpeeled sections that you want for your piñata!  Thanks to Verónica Hernández at Mexico City's Mercado Medellín (corner of Calle Campeche and Av. Medellín, Colonia Roma) for letting me take this photo; if you're in the city, look for her and her employer, Mario Bautista, at Booth 138--tell her you saw her caña (sugar cane) on Mexico Cooks!.

The fragrant perfume of ripe guayabas (guavas) permeates our markets right now--they're in season and ready to buy for ponche.


Seasonal tejocotes--Mexican hawthorn, similar to the crabapple.  Each of these fruits measures approximately 1 1/4" in diameter.  The fruit is very high in pectin, which slightly thickens a pot of ponche.  If you simply cannot find tejocotes, substitute another pound of apples.


Tamarind pods with their shells on.  Be sure to peel off the shells before cooking!  If you're unable to find the pods, use about 1/4 pound tamarind paste.


These are prunes with seeds.  You can use these or you can used seedless prunes.


These are the dehydrated jamaica flowers you need to make ponche.  They add deep red color and slight tartness to the drink.

Star anise for your ponche.  You will find this in the store where you usually buy spices, at a Latin market, or at an Asian market.


Look at this huge display of piloncillo (molded raw brown sugar) at the Mercado de Jamaica, Mexico City!  One kilo will be enough for this recipe's ponche.  Click on any photo to enlarge.


This is what's known as canela--Mexican "true cinnamon".  The truth is, it's grown in Sri Lanka and imported to Mexico.  Notice how many, many layers of very thin bark are folded in on one another.  This cinnamon is quite soft, breaks and flakes easily, and is what you want to look for to use in ponche and any other Mexican recipe calling for cinnamon.  Do not be misled into buying cassia, a much more readily found, much harder in consistency, and much less flavorful "fake" cinnamon usually found packaged in the United States.  Look for canela at your Latin market; the sticks are usually quite long.  These measure nearly a half-meter!  To the right side are Mexican raisins, which, if you like, you can also add to the ponche.


Old-fashioned Mexican peltre (enamel over metal) cups filled with ponche navideño.  Be sure to put a lot of all of the varieties of fruit into each cup.  Those are caña (sugar cane) sticks (colored pink by the jamaica flowers)--an edible decoration and a tool for pushing fruit from the cup into your mouth!  Photo courtesy Kiwilimon.

Provecho!  (Mexico's way of saying bon appetit!)  

May your Christmas be filled with the love of family and friends, and with the delicious flavors of Mexico!

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If You'll Be in Mexico City Over the Holidays :: Pozole Moctezuma, the Best in Town

The block-long portion of Calle Moctezuma in Colonia Guerrero where the restaurant sits is just off Av. Reforma.  It's right there in plain sight, but where?  Mexico Cooks!' taxi driver missed it twice before he pulled up in front, and even then he couldn't believe we were anyplace we really wanted to be. There's no sign and no indication that the restaurant is anywhere on the block.  Other restaurants, yes--but not the one you are looking for!  The word 'pozole' next to the buzzer at Number 12 is your only clue that you are indeed in the right place.

Do the clandestine days of Prohibition appeal to you--those long-ago days when, if you wanted a snootful of booze runner's gin, you had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew where the gin joint was?  "Joe sent me," was the joke of the era--knock three times, the little window in the door slid open, and if you were in the right place, knew the right people, and had the right look, you got in for a drink or two or three.

Something of those days continues to exist in Mexico City: not a gin joint, but a 75-year-old hidden and semi-secret restaurant very near the Centro Histórico.  One of your capitalino friends will have been there; finding the address is still by word of mouth.  Once you're pretty sure you're in the right place, buzz the doorbell marked 'pozole', and the door creaks open.  Aha!  Pozole estilo Guerrero--state of Guerrero style pozole--will soon be your comida (main meal of the day).  But shhhh, this place is our secret, okay?

All of the best pozole starts with cabeza de puerco (a pig's head).  Nothing else gives pozole its rich flavor and consistency.

If you've been following Mexico Cooks! for quite a while, you'll probably remember our 2008 article about my beloved friend doña María Medina's pozole estilo Jalisco.  Jalisco-style pozole is almost always red, colored and flavored by chile guajillo and is usually prepared with nixtamalized native cacahuatzintle corn. Until a few weeks ago, Jalisco-style pozole was the only kind Mexico Cooks! had eaten.  Not any more!  We have now partaken of several other pozole pleasures.

The caldo (soupy part) of Guerrero-style pozole is green, more often than not, and prepared in part with pepitas (squash seeds).  The dried, nixtamalize-d (simmered with builder's lime and water) corn is white, not red.  The flavor is much milder than that of Jalisco-style pozole, and the accompaniments can be decidedly different.

Our group of comensales (diners)--in this instance, happy fellow pozole-slurpers and good friends.  From left in the photo: Judith McKnight, photographers Sergio Mendoza Alarcón and Bertha Herrera, journalist Rubén Hernández, and journalist Nadia Luna.  The empty chair is mine, and we were later joined by the delightful gastronomer Silvia Kurczyn. 

If you are interested in preparing a delicious meal for your friends and family--especially good on a cool fall day, a chilly winter day, or on one of Mexico City's cool, rainy summer afternoons--pozole estilo Guerrero is just the ticket.  There are many recipes available on the Internet, both in Spanish and English--not necessarily the exact family recipe used at Pozole Moctezuma, but delicious nonetheless.


Our group indulged in several appetizers: an entire plateful of very fine rolled tacos de chorizo (chorizo is a spicy pork sausage, in this case house-made) and laden with finely chopped onion and fresh cilantro--plus a squeeze of fresh limón), disappeared before I could snap its picture.  I pulled the second appetizer plate over to me as soon as it arrived at table; this plate is filled with tostadas de frijoles refritos con chorizo y jitomate (crispy tortillas with refried beans, the same chorizo used in the tacos, and thinly sliced tomatoes).  I could have eaten all six tostadas, they were that delicious.  The yellow plate in the background holds freshly made chicharrón (fried pork skin) to eat by itself, spread liberally with crema de mesa (table cream) or to break up a little and add to the pozole.

Each of us ordered the medium-size pozole, more than enough for medium-size appetites or for folks who had already eaten several appetizers.  Compare the size of the bowl with the good-size avocado behind it.  Our bowlsful, replete with rich pork meat, nixtamal-ized corn, and Guerrero-green broth, arrived at table just as you see this one.  Behind the bowl at left are a plate of chicharrón (rear), a plate of plain tostadas, and, to the right, the avocado. 

My bowl of pozole after adding condiments.  I know the green in the center looks like broccoli, but in reality it is pieces of avocado just spooned out of the skin.  Also in the bowl are a sprinkle of oregano, a sprinkle of chile piquín, a spoonful each of minced onion and chile serrano, and a bit of chopped cilantro. On the back edge of the bowl (at twelve o'clock) is a piece of chicharrón gordo, with a creamy square of deep-fried pork meat still attached.  Next to the chicharrón is a tostada smeared with thick crema de mesa, (Mexican table cream), sprinkled with just a bit of the same chile piquín.  In the bowl itself, just in front of the green avocado, is a slice of sardine.  Its slightly fishy saltiness added the perfect je-ne-sais-quoi to the pozole.  According to my compañeros de mesa (dining companions), pozole estilo Guerrero is often served with a sardine accompaniment.  The various elements of the pozole represent all of the elements of the state, including the high plains, the jungle, and the coast.

This restaurant, with more 75 years of history behind it, has been witness to countless events important to Mexico City and the country as a whole.  Here, history has been made and history has been changed, young men propose to their girlfriends and politicians plan their campaigns.  During one crucial comida, the guns of opposing political factions had to be checked at the door.  Jerónimo Álvarez Garduño, the gallant great-grandson of the founder, is executive chef of the restaurant that got its start long before he was born.  Its beginnings, in the kitchen and living room of his great-grandmother's upstairs apartment (Number 6), were hidden from public view for the security of the restaurant's clients.  Álvarez Garduño works together with his parents, Yolanda Garduño and Guillermo Álvarez López, to ensure that the great Guerrero tradition of "jueves pozolero" (pozole Thursday) continues in Mexico City.


Things are not always what they seem: arroz con huevo estrellado (rice with sunny-side up fried egg) is a typically Mexican dish--served in an atypical form at Pozole Moctezuma.  Here, it's dessert: arroz con leche topped with a syrupy peach half.

After comida, ask for café de olla--normally, a special Mexican coffee sweetened in the pot with piloncillo (raw brown sugar) and cinnamon.  At Pozole Moctezuma, you will be served instead with a glass of anise liqueur, a few roasted coffee beans floating on top.  The restaurant has never had a liquor license, but some alcoholic beverages by other names are available: a refrescada (mezcal with grapefruit soda) to start your meal, beer to go with your pozole, and this lovely café de olla to finish your meal.  Soft drinks are also served.

Pozole Moctezuma is a true, rich taste of Mexico City's yesteryear.  By all means, if you are visiting the city, go.  You'll be so glad you did.

Pozole Moctezuma
Moctezuma #12 (Ring the bell to be admitted)
Colonia Guerrero
Distrito Federal
Monday through Saturday 2PM - 7PM
Pozole verde on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
Reservations: 5526-7448

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The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12 :: El Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, 12 de diciembre

The actual tilma (cape-like garment made of woven maguey cactus fiber) worn by San Juan Diego when he first saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, in December 1531.  The framed tilma hangs over the main altar at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Mexico City.

The annual feast of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) falls on December 12.  Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is Mexico's patron saint, and her image adorns churches and altars, house facades and interiors, taxis, private cars, and buses, bull rings and gambling dens, restaurants and houses of ill repute. The national shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, la Basílica, is a place of extraordinary vitality and celebration. On major festival days such as the anniversary of the apparition on December 12th, the atmosphere of devotion created by the many hundreds of thousands of pilgrims is truly electrifying.

Statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe for sale at one of the many, many souvenir booths outside the Basílica.

The enormous Basílica of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico City is the most visited pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere. Its location, on the hill of Tepeyac, was a place of great sanctity long before the arrival of Christianity in the New World. In pre-Hispanic times, Tepeyac was crowned with a temple dedicated to an earth and fertility goddess called Tonantzin, the Mother of the Gods and our mother. Tonantzin was a virgin goddess associated with the moon, as is Our Lady of Guadalupe who usurped Tonantzin's shrine.

Our Lady of Guadalupe tattoo.

Read the full story of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe here.

Our Lady of Guadalupe with flashing lights, surrounded by fresh roasted peanuts. Cañafest, Morelia, Michoacán. November 2009.

 
Plastic holy water bottles in her image and in a rainbow of colors, for sale at the booths just outside the Basílica.

Art casket, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Basílica.

 
Primitive folk art depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe.


Statue in resin of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint John Paul II, who was devoted to her.  This image is reproduced as calendars, statues of all sizes, and pictures to hang on the wall.  In Mexico, it's still one of the most popular images of 'the real Pope--Mexico's pope'.

Portrait of Monseñor Diego Monroy, former rector of the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and a native of the state of Michoacán.  The painting is part of Monseñor Monroy's private collection; it was my privilege to visit him in his home and take this photo--he was standing just behind me!

In 1810, Padre Miguel Hidalgo carried this banner to lead the struggle for Mexico's independence from Spain.

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Tamales for Christmas in Mexico :: It's Never Too Early to Start Dreaming of Them!

Tamales Oaxaca style, wrapped in banana leaves.  These tamales, prepared in the kitchen at Restaurante Las 15 Letras in Oaxaca, were filled with armadillo meat.  They were absolutely delicious.

When I was a child, my mother would sometimes buy a glass jar (I have conveniently forgotten the brand name) packed with what we called "hot tamales". Wrapped individually in parchment paper, covered in a thin, brackish, tomato-y fluid, these slippery travesties were all I knew of tamales until I moved to Mexico.

The first Christmas season I that I lived in this country, over 40 years ago, my neighbor from across the street came to my door to deliver a dozen of her finest home-made tamales, fresh from the tamalera (tamales steamer). I knew enough of Mexico's politeness to understand that to refuse them would be an irreparable insult, but I also was guilty of what I now know as contempt prior to investigation. I did not want tamales. The memory of those childhood tamales was disgusting. I smiled and thanked her as graciously as I could.

"Pruébalos ya!" she prodded. "Taste them now!" With some hesitation I reached for a plate from the shelf, a fork from the drawer (delay, delay) and unwrapped the steaming corn husk wrapper from a plump tamal she said was filled with pork meat and red chile. One bite and I was an instant convert. My delighted grin told her everything she wanted to know. She went home satisfied, wiping her hands on her apron. I downed two more tamales as soon as she was out of sight. More than 40 years later, I haven't stopped loving them.


A three-compartment tamalera: bottom left, Oaxaca-style tamales wrapped in banana leaves.  Right, central Mexico-style tamales, wrapped in corn husks.

 
The 'official' voice of the ubiquitous Mexico City tamales oaxaqueños vendors. One of these carts visits our street every night at about ten o'clock.

Christmas in Mexico is a time for special festive foods. More tamales than any other food come from our Christmas kitchen. Tamales of pork, beef or chicken with spicy red chile or semi-tart green chile, tamales of rajas con queso (strips of roasted poblano chiles with cheese), and sweet pineapple ones, each with a single raisin pressed into the masa (dough), pour in a steady, steaming torrent from kitchen after kitchen. 

I asked my next door neighbor what she's making for Christmas Eve dinner. "Pues, tamales,que más," she answered. "Well, tamales, what else!" 

I asked the woman who cleans my house. "Pues, tamales, que más!" 

I asked the woman who cuts my hair. "Pues, tamales, que más!"

And my handyman. "What's your wife making to eat for Christmas Eve, Felipe?" 

I bet by now you know what he replied. "Pues,tamales, que más?"

Obviously there are other things eaten on Christmas Eve in Mexico. Some folks feast on bacalao a la vizcaína (dried salt codfish stewed with tomatoes, capers, olives, and potatoes). Some women proudly carry huge cazuelas (rustic clay casserole dishes) of mole poblano con guajolote (turkey in a complex, rich sauce of chiles, multiple toasted spices, and a little chocolate de metate (stone ground chocolate), thickened with ground tortillas) to their festive table. Some brew enormous ollas (pots) of menudo (tripe and cow's foot soup) or pozole (a hearty soup of nixtamaliz-ed cacahuatzintle, a native white corn, chiles, pork meat, and condiments) for their special Christmas Eve meal, traditionally served late on Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), after the Misa de Gallo (Midnight Mass).

As an exceptional treat, we're sharing part of a photo essay by my good friend Rolly Brook, may he rest in peace.  The photo essay is all about tamales, their ingredients and preparation. Rolly's friend doña Martha cooks a whole pig head for her tamales; many cooks prefer to use maciza—the solid meat from the leg. Either way, the end result is a marvelous Christmas treat.

Doña Martha Prepares Tamales for Christmas 

 
Doña Martha, now with Rolly in heaven, begins to take the meat off the cooked pig head.

Doña Martha mixes the shredded meat from the pig head into the pot of chile colorado (red chile sauce that she prepared earlier in the day).

 
Doña Martha needs a strong arm to beat freshly rendered lard into the prepared corn for the masa.  The lard and ground corn must be beaten together until the mixture is as fluffy as possible.

 
Doña Martha's daughter spreads masa (corn dough) on the prepared hojas de maíz (corn husks).

 
Corn husks spread with masa, ready to be filled.

 
Doña Martha fills each masa-spread corn husk with meat and chile colorado.

 
Folding the hojas de maíz is an assembly-line process involving the whole family.

 
Tamales in the tamalera, ready to be steamed.  Steaming takes an hour or so.


One small plateful of the finished tamales!

The photos only show part of the process of making tamales.  You can access Rolly's entire photo essay on his website.  A few years prior to his death, Rolly graciously allowed Mexico Cooks! the use of his wonderful pictures.  Although Rolly is now having his Christmas tamales in heaven, his website is permanently on line for the benefit of anyone who needs almost any information about life in Mexico.

Can we finish all these tamales at one sitting?  My friends and neighbors prepare hundreds of them with leftovers in mind. Here's how to reheat tamales so they're even better than when they first came out of the steamer.

Recalentados (Reheated Tamales)

Over a medium flame, pre-heat an ungreased clay or cast iron comal (griddle) or in a preheated heavy skillet. Put the tamales to reheat in a single layer, still in their corn husk wrappers. Let them toast, turning them over and over until the corn husks are dark golden brown, nearly black. Just when you think they're going to burn, take them off the heat and peel the husks away. The tamales will be slightly golden, a little crunchy on the edges, and absolutely out of this world delicious.

Provecho!  (Good eating!)

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