This marinated spicy salad is rather like the traditional Mexican Christmas Eve Salad and takes advantage of fall vegetables. Substitute celery for the jicama, add oranges or apples, and you have a lower-fat take on a Waldorf salad.
Posole (Pork and Posole Corn)
This dish is traditionally served during the Christmas season in New Mexico, when a pot simmering at the back of the stove provides a welcoming fare for holiday well-wishers. I can’t remember any holiday party or dinner that I’ve attended that this stew hasn’t been served. At my house this is a staple on Christmas Eve. I always have a pot ready to warm my husband and I up after strolling Old Town and enjoying the luminarias. Similar to, yet different from the “pozole” served in Mexico, this popular dish is served as a soup, a main course, or a vegetable side dish. Posole, the processed corn, is the main ingredient of this dish of the same name. If posole corn is not available, you may substitute hominy–the taste won’t be the same, but it will still be good.
Poblano Pepper Rings
Since poblanos make some of the tastiest chiles rellenos, it makes sense that they fry up deliciously. Why not dip these rings in guacamole?
New Mexico Red Chile Sauce
The chiles that are traditionally used for Chile Colorado (red chile sauce) are the ones that are plucked off the ristras. Ristras, those strings of dried chiles that adorn houses in New Mexico are not just for decoration they are used for cooking also. This is a basic sauce that is used in any Southwestern recipe that calls for a red sauce such as enchiladas or tamales or as in the above recipe for Posole.
Chile de Arbol Salad
Jicamas are a bulbous root vegetable with thin brown skin and a crisp, crunchy, sweet flesh rather like a water chestnut. In Mexico, jicamas are a popular snack food sold by street vendors who cut them into sticks, douse them with lime juice, and sprinkle them with chile. Sometimes called a Mexican potato, it’s good both raw and cooked, although it is usually served raw as an appetizer or in salads such as this one. This spicy salad dressing goes well with a number of fruits and vegetables so experiment with your own combinations.