Christmas is right around the corner and I think you should all jump on board. The star Mexican Navidad drink is ponche; it’s delicious, warm, spicy, festive AAAAND it can be boozed up for the grownups. Bonus: your house will smell like Christmas for sure. My favorite thing about ponche is, it has a bunch of ingredients that are pretty unusual for foreigners. It’s always a great way to show our heritage, and traditions and how incredible it is that ingredients from so far away are local staples in our recipes.
One of the most interesting ingredients in ponche is tejocote, and you either love it or hate it. We’re talking about a small fruit that comes from a tree. The name comes from Nahuatl originally: Texocotl; tetl-stone, xocotls-bittersweet fruit. It looks like a tiny apple and is very tart. The tree is wild, full of thorns and can grow on diverse soils and weathers, but it is more comfortable around the volcanic areas in central Mexico. Tejocote is very rich in vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. The fruit is mostly consumed cooked, and to eat it raw, it must be very, very ripe. Tejocote season starts in October and ends in January, which is probably why it is so often used in Mexican Christmas ponche. I think it should be named a superfruit since it lowers blood sugar levels and can also be made into a tea which helps with respiratory problems like cough, pneumonia, bronchitis, flu and common cold.
Another interesting ingredient is sugarcane, which made its way from Guinea to Asia and then to Spain. In 1522, Cortez brought it to the Americas. Sugar cane expanded through (now Mexican) territory three years after the fall of Tenochtitlan; the weather and high demand for sugar were great excuses for this crop to be found countrywide. It was often referred to as the honey with no bees, and it soon overtook even cotton plantations. Interestingly enough, sugar cane plantations and sugar refineries were some of the most affected during the Independence movement; most of the sugar business was owned and operated by Spaniards but worked by indigenous people. This huge hit made sugar a lot more expensive during the following years and was even considered a luxury item. Nowadays, sugar is too expensive and less sweet than fructose syrup, so more and more industries are replacing this ingredient. It is not profitable to export anymore, leaving Mexican sugar in a tight spot. Also, most sugar cane plantations and sugar refineries are owned by a very tight group of people and it is a very hard business to get into.
Consuming sugarcane is not as hard as it looks, but you have to be a little cautious, as there is a risk of hurting your fingers with a sharp knife. To peel the sugarcane, the only equipment you need is a sharp knife, a steady hand, and a little common sense. Make sure the knife is sharp enough; otherwise, you will end up wasting your valuable energy without getting a single piece of chewable sugarcane. Yes, there’s a wrong way to do it.
The sugarcanes are usually sold short enough to manage. In the stores, they are usually cut into smaller pieces, and often without the “knee” part. But, if you get to buy the long sticks of sugarcane, you have to first cut them into smaller pieces. Discard the knees before you start peeling.
These smaller pieces are now ready for peeling. Use the knife to start peeling at the smooth end. Cut the peel along the outer layer of the sugarcane as long as you can, lengthwise. It will be a little bit like doing some hardcore gardening.
When the peeling is done, cut the sugarcane into smaller pieces so that they can be chewed easily -- a half-inch thick and three inches long. Sugar cane is not meant to be swallowed, but chewed on while sucking the juice and punch out!
Tamarind (Tam-uh-rind) is also very commonly found in Mexican candy and used in a sourer-spicier context. A tamarind tree is very large (up to 100 feet tall) and grows very slowly. It is native to Africa but grows well in any tropical climate. It also made its way to our country with Spaniards who had previously been around the other side of the world. It bears fruits that are around 6 inches long and look like large, curved bean pods. Young tamarind fruit has a pliable brown skin and the inside is greenish with whitish seeds. As the fruit matures, the greenish insides turn brown and the pod becomes more bulbous. As the fruit dries out, the pod becomes stiff and brittle, the insides become pasty, and the seeds turn brown.
Jalisco, Guerrero, Colima, Chiapas, and Veracruz are the top tamarind producers in Mexico. Most trees are planted for the fruit, but some are planted as shade trees because they are so wide. Tamarind fruit flavor is very popular and is used to flavor many foods and candies and even water. The quickest way to get to the pulp is to break the shell by hand and remove the sticky pulp with your fingers. For commercial use, the entire pod is boiled to soften the outer shell, then it is ground up with water and strained so that the pulp is removed from the bits of shell and seed. The pulp is then canned for later sale.
The flavor of the greenish un-ripened tamarind is very watery, acidic and very sour. The ripened sticky pulp has a musky flavor and is sweet and sour due to the sugars and acid content. The ripe tamarind pulp has many uses. Some recipes call for the pulp to be removed from the pod first, and others allow soaking in the cooking liquid and breaking the pod open in the liquid to release the pulp, then straining the mixture to remove the pieces of the outer shell. Tamarind can be added to soups, marinades, or sweets.
This is a BIG recipe, written for when you host a posada, but it can be sized down! You will need a BIG pot, like the ones used for tamales. Or you can have ponche from now until New Year's. Not a bad idea.
Ingredients:
- 2 lb. of sugar cane
- 5 apples (whatever kind you like!)
- 5 pears
- 5 guavas
- 1 gallon of water
- 7 oz of tamarind
- 7 oz of prunes
- 1 oz of Jamaica flower (dried hibiscus)
- 2 cloves
- 2 lbs. of piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar)
- ½ cup of regular sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
Procedure:
- Peel the sugar cane and cut it into one-inch sticks.
- Remove the hearts of the apples and pears and slice thinly.
- Quarter the guavas and tejocotes.
- Bring the water to a soft boil, add all the fruit, let it come to a roaring boil and cook for 20 minutes.
- Add the tamarind, prunes, Jamaica flowers, cloves, piloncillo, sugar and cinnamon sticks and simmer until all the fruit is thoroughly cooked.
- Have a cup of cheer! For the “piquete” as we call it, I recommend rum, tequila, mezcal and even whiskey. I wouldn’t add it to the whole batch, but over anyone’s cup if preferred.
You can find me at ale.borbolla@gringogazette.com for questions, suggestions or anything you need!
