Mexican Christmas food spans enchiladas, pozole, tamales, and plenty of desserts. These are our favorite recipes for flavorful versions of those dishes from Mexican chefs, along with a few festive drinks. Start a tamale making tradition, warm up with pozole this winter, and enjoy enchiladas everyone will love.
Banana Leaf-Wrapped Lamb Shank Tamales with Morita Chile Salsa
These smoky braised-lamb tamales, favorite at event producer Paola Briseño González's holiday tamale parties, get a pop of freshness from bright cilantro-onion relish, while a wrapper of banana leaves perfumes the masa with a softly sweet aroma as they steam.
Paola Briseño González roasts oyster mushrooms, concentrating their flavor, for a hearty vegetarian tamale filling to pair with velvety, intensely aromatic, and deeply savory peanut mole, or mole encacahuatado.
This recipe from Edgar Castrejón's cookbook, Provecho, is velvety and rich, smartly employing mushrooms for earthy flavor and slight chew. The result is just as satisfying as a meat-laden pozole, and leftovers are fabulous.
The recipe here is based on a dish created by Josef Centeno's great-grandmother, who raised 12 kids. Because meat was expensive, she often made enchiladas using only vegetables, like carrots and potatoes. The salsa is spicy and complex, made with both serrano chiles and dried chipotles.
Pozole is a slow-simmered, elaborately spiced Mexican stew made with hominy (dried corn kernels soaked in a mineral lime bath). This streamlined version from Chopped judge Aarón Sánchez uses two time-saving ingredients: fresh chorizo (which is already spiced) and pork cut into small, quick-cooking cubes.
At Mestizo, his former restaurant in Leawood, Kansas, Aarón Sánchez would make an elaborate, long-simmered sauce for enchiladas. For a quick meal at home, though, he reaches for canned red chile sauce, such as one from Las Palmas. "It's old-school, very straightforward," he says. Sanchez sometimes adds shredded braised chicken to his enchiladas for a heartier meal.
Ponche Navideño is a Christmastime spiced tropical fruit punch that's served warm with a shot of tequila in Mexico. Paola Briseño González's chilled riff is refreshing and bright thanks to hibiscus, guava, apples, and mint.
Mexican Christmas food spans enchiladas, pozole, tamales, and plenty of desserts. These are our favorite recipes for flavorful versions of those dishes from Mexican chefs, along with a few festive drinks. Start a tamale making tradition, warm up with pozole this winter, and enjoy enchiladas everyone will love.
It's a full month of celebrations, marked with family feasts and lots of piñatas. Starting on 12 December and lasting until 6 January, Christmas celebrations in Mexico have their own flair. There are candlelit processions, elaborate nativity scenes, Spanish Christmas carols, dancing and fireworks.
These bundles of corn were offered as sacrifices to the gods as many believed corn was used by the gods to make humans. The time-honored tradition of making — and eating — Christmas tamales begins before Christmas. It extends through the 12th day of Christmas.
Some of the most popular vegetables in Mexico are tomatoes, onions, and peppers since they're used to make salsas. Other traditional Mexican vegetables include garlic, squash, cabbage, nopales, and more. Here are 17 common Mexican vegetables along with their health benefits and how they're used in Mexican cuisine.
What do Mexicans wear on Christmas? Mexicans usually wear colorful costumes during Las Posadas. Many a times, two children would dress up as Mary and Joseph. The people of the city can be spotted wearing bright colours and vivid outfits with Christmas quotations or pictures on them during the Christmas holidays.
The most important meal of the day is lunch (comida) and normally served between 1 and 3 p.m. Supper (cena) is served late, usually after 8 p.m. and is a light snack, although in urban areas supper can be an elaborate affair eaten at restaurants.
The Bandera. The Bandera is a festive drink full of Mexican spirit that features the vibrant colors of the Mexican flag, making it very appropriate for Independence Day! This drink is prepared in three separate shot glasses that are meant to be sipped rather than downed.
The most famous of Mexico's New Year's foods is bacalao, dried and salted codfish. People usually cook it with tomatoes, capers, and olives. For dessert, families in Oaxaca often eat buñuelos, sweet fritters with powdered sugar and syrup.
Posadas are a series of fiestas navideñas (Christmas parties) that traditionally take place December 16–24 in many Latin American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Cuba.
Traditional Posada foods include: tamales, pozole, buñuelos, atole, ponche and café de olla. Whether you're hosting a Posada, Christmas Eve dinner, or just want to make tamales at home, our easy to follow Red Pork Tamales recipe will help you make, share, and enjoy this traditional dish with friends & family.
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