In kitchens across the Eastside, the holidays begin long before the food reaches the table. For many abuelas, recipes come with stories from the past and their own personal touch.
From warm comforts like champurrado and ponche, to sweet delights like buñuelos and a uniquely fresh Christmas Eve salad, here’s a look into the holiday recipes bringing families and neighbors together.
Buñuelos
Guille Quezada
Guille Quezada’s buñuelo recipe reminds her of home. She recalls the December mornings spent making buñuelos with her mother, grandmother and siblings as a child in Jalisco, Mexico.
Her recipe, which was passed down from her mother, combines flour, eggs, butter, freshly ground cinnamon and cinnamon tea into a soft dough. The dough rests for 30 minutes before being rolled into thin, round sheets that are fried until golden brown and dusted with cinnamon sugar.
Quezada remembers smelling the comforting aroma of cinnamon throughout her childhood home and sharing stories with her siblings and the matriarchs of her family. As kids, they would roll out and shape the buñuelo dough while their mother and grandmother fried them.
“[Cocinar] era como una forma de sanar y uno sin darnos cuenta … Siempre queríamos que llegara ese diciembre para hacer esa actividad.” [Cooking] was like a form of healing and we didn’t even notice. We always wanted December to come, she said.
Noche Buena salad
Maria Mendez
Maria Mendez’s favorite holiday memories include harvesting and peeling hundreds of pine nuts with her siblings in Puebla, Mexico, for her mother’s staple Noche Buena salad.
The colorful combination of fruits and vegetables offers a sweet and fresh bite to pair with any holiday dish. The salad blends romaine lettuce, jicama, radish, boiled beets, oranges, bananas, peanuts, lime juice, sugar, olive oil and, of course, pine nuts.
The recipe was passed down from Mendez’s grandmother and has since become a mainstay on her holiday dinner spread, she said. She hopes one of her 27 grandchildren will carry on the recipe for generations to come.
“Hay recetas similares pero nada que ver con la que hacía (mi mamá),” Mendez said. There are similar recipes, but nothing compares to the one (my mother) used to make.
Ponche Navideño
Lourdes Ascencio
Lourdes Ascensio’s holiday ponche is the perfect cozy holiday drink to share with loved ones this holiday season. She’ll be making it for a holiday gathering with her family this weekend, she said.
Her recipe includes water, cinnamon sticks, sugar cane, peeled tamarind, tejocote, guava, apples and hibiscus, in that order. The process is gradual. It’s important not to add all the fruit at once, as some cook faster than others.
“Se pone gradualmente, para que (la fruta) salga ni cruda ni desbaratada,” Ascencio said.
The cinnamon stick and hibiscus leaves are left just long enough for the drink to pull some flavor but not overpower the taste of the other ingredients. Once that process is complete, the warm, fruity drink is sweetened with piloncillo. Ascensio’s recipe doesn’t have a specific cooking time, she said, the taste will let you know when it’s ready.
Champurrado
Letty Galvan
Over the years, Letty Galvan’s champurrado has warmed the bellies of churchgoers on chilly Sunday mornings and neighbors and community at posadas around town. Chocolate, cinnamon, sweetened condensed milk, piloncillo and masa come together to create a rich and warm beverage that keeps people coming back.
First, melt a block of Chocolate Ibarra, piloncillo, two cinnamon sticks and about half a gallon of water on the stove. Then, blend about a pound of masa for tortillas with the remaining gallon of water to thicken the chocolate mixture. It’s sweetened with one can of sweetened condensed milk, y listo.
Galvan used to sell champurrado outside of Dolores Mission church, but now takes it as an offering to community gatherings or makes it for her family and grandchildren during the holidays. She learned the recipe from the community she’s built as part of Proyecto Pastoral’s Comité de Lideres, and over time has made it her own.