Ponche! Mexican Punch!

Ponche! Punch! Any time I think about punch, I have these flashbacks of this large glass punch bowl mom would bring out during the holidays. It too would be filled with different fruits, but most of the times served cold. Mexican style holiday punch is most often served warm during the holidays, but most certainly could be served chilled. This would be a delicious start to a tasty red sangria cocktail! Or you could let your guest add a splash of tequila to make it a little more traditional.

I had good intentions and meant to share this post two seasons ago! Oh, no!

Times gets away from me and before I know it, the holiday season is here once again. December 1st and I told myself, “get it done!” That brings me to this moment! Mom never prepared this version of ponche when I was growing up. I tried it for the first time when I visited Mexico on my own and I really liked it. Only bad part was that I could not get all of the ingredients to prepare it when I lived in a small town on the east coast. Nowadays, online shopping makes things easier. Lucky for me, there are a few Mexican markets where I live now and I could find almost anything!

I always associate fruits and vegetables with Mexican food!

When I was teaching Mexican cooking classes many years ago, the students were always so surprised to se how much produce went into the recipes we would be preparing. If you just think about what goes into salsas and sauces, you couldn’t do it without a variety of vegetables. In the end I don’t think the dishes would be as good. Fruit was an easy and healthier option than cookies and sugary snacks growing up. You could not leave the swap meet or flea market without having some mango, pepino or jicama with lime and chile de arbol powder.

I couldn’t imagine growing up without tamarindo!

The first time I ever tried tamarindo, was in a miniature cazuela that came with a wooden spoon tied with a rubber band. Do you remember those? For a while I was hooked on these tamarindos that my parents would buy at the dulceria(candy shop) in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon. What I loved about them was that they were salty and spicy and did not have sugar in them. Most tamarindo candies out there have sugar. The peeled pods can be softened in simmering water to prepare agua fresca or to add some tangy acidity to sauce or salsas. Or if you are like me, peel them and sprinkle on a generous amount of chile limon seasoning.

hen we were kids, my siblings and I would steal the piloncillo cones from mom’s kitchen!

Guilty! Lol! Not just the piloncillo, we would steal the carne seca(dried beef), roma tomatoes(with salt) and the cans of tomato sauce to prepare our own version of V-8, lol! The distinct flavor of piloncillo compared to granulated sugar, is delicious.