Fancy eats for the holiday? No, tradition rules the day

My vastly improved culinary skills notwithstanding, we will stick to tradition for our main Christmas meal. That means home-made tamales (no mean culinary feat in and of themselves); hours-long, pot-simmered beans; spiced-up rice; two kinds of enchiladas, gorditas dipped in red chile sauce and rolled with cheese.

With two terms of culinary school behind me, I have the ability to put together at least the basics of a classic French-inspired meal. But I'm not even tempted. When it comes to the holidays, we want the food we grew up with, the food that nourished not only our bodies but our spirits, food made with loving hands in the traditional way.

Don't ask for recipes. As in many culinary traditions, these are hand-me-down methods, developed over generations of a handful of this, a dash of that, enough kneading of the masa until it feels right, somehow just knowing that it is cooked enough or that the chile has the right consistency.

Cooking this food transports me mentally and emotionally back in time, to the kitchens of my mom and tias, where no pair of hands was idle and no one -- even the most distant of drop-in cousins -- went hungry.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.

Christmas season also means 'tamalada' season

The tamalada is a tradition as old as -- well, as old as corn. And that's pretty old, considering the experts believe that corn was domesticated at least 5,600 years ago in what are now southern Mexico and Central America.

The tamalada, or tamale-making party, most likely originated out of necessity to secure a food supply during the times when corn and other products weren't available. Corn kernels were dried and treated, then ground to a flour. Mixed with water and other liquids, the corn flour became a dough from which many things were and are made. Tortillas, tamales and enchiladas are but the most obvious and recognizable.

Now, the tamalada is both tradition and celebration, in that it brings families and groups of like-minded people together to prepare food, refresh and rejuvenate relationships and celebrate the season.

Thus it is so that the long-standing -- yet recently dormant -- Oropeza-Martinez family tamalada will be on Sunday at the house of my suegra, Ramona Martinez. Three daughters, three sons-in-law and at least a couple of grandchildren are expected to take part.

A full report on the tamalada will be posted soon.

Deconstruction: pork tamales to tacos, enchiladas

Corn is the foundation of Mexican food.

Whether that corn is roasted on the cob or, in its more common form in Mexican cuisine, dried, milled and turned into masa harina, or corn flour, it is the basis for a vast array of dishes.

That's why I used Mexican food for "The Plate," a research project for culinary school. The assignment in Culinary Foundations II class was to write a paper describing a plate of food and then describing how it could be deconstructed and rebuilt using different cooking techniques and coming up with a different plate.

The idea is to instill in us the ability to think creatively when building menus and learning to use food products in different ways.

I started with pork and red chile tamales and whole pinto beans. I ended with tacos de carnitas, Sonoran enchiladas dipped in red chile sauce and refritos, or refried beans.

The key was corn, more specifically masa harina, the milled corn flour used to make tamales, tortillas and enchiladas. Instead of preparing the masa for spreading onto corn husks and then filled with meat for steaming as tamales, I proposed preparing the masa for making into corn tortillas to be used for tacos and flat enchiladas to be fried and dipped into red chile sauce.

In the original manifestation, the cooking techniques included braising the pork, sauté for elements of the chile sauce, steaming for completing the tamales and poaching for the beans.

For the new plate, the techniques included roasting the pork, roasting for elements of the chile sauce, sauté for making the tortillas, (deep) frying for the enchiladas and a combination of poaching and sauté for the beans.

I will turn in the research paper today. Then will come the true challenge -- actually making the two plates -- tamales and whole beans; tascos, enchiladas and refritos -- from scratch. We don't have to demonstrate that for class, but I plan to do it just for the practice of it.

Same products -- corn, pork, chiles, beans -- but different meals, different tastes and flavors.