Cooks Go to Their Roots for Festive Food From Other Cultures

For every Christmas as far back as Maria Elena Avila, 36, of Fullerton can remember, the women of her family “get together around this big table and we make tamales.”

When Mary Nguyen, 45, of Huntington Beach gathers her diverse family for Christmas, she creates a celebration to encompass two cultures. Food for Christmas Eve is Vietnamese, while food for Christmas Day is typically American.

Holiday preparations for Stella Lento of Anaheim include making dishes she enjoyed during her girlhood in pre-World War II Poland.

And at this time of year, Arlene Rose of Fullerton is thinking about preparations for a Hanukkah party, which always includes potato latkes and jelly doughnuts.

Food is always an important part of holiday celebrations, and for many Orange County residents, it’s an opportunity to salute their ethnic ancestry and traditional foods.

Avila says “it’s like an assembly line” every year when aunts, cousins, her daughter Lisa, 19, and her sister, Margarita, gather about a week before Christmas to make tamales at the Corona del Mar home of her parents, Salvador and Margarita Avila. Last year, that assembly line turned out more than 1,200 tamales for the annual Christmas Eve feast, which includes up to 40 people.

“Everybody looks forward to the time of gathering, and they’re joking and they’re laughing,” Avila says of the annual tamale-making. “We all change our work schedules to be there and carry out that tradition.” Avila owns Avila’s El Ranchito restaurant in Brea, while other members of the family own six more El Ranchitos.

And the tamales are just a part of the special closeness of the Avila holiday celebration. “We’re a combination of Catholics and born-again Christians, and we’ve been very blessed to combine them . . . and find common ground,” Avila explains.

At midnight on Christmas Eve, the Avilas light a candle and family members share something about how “Christ brought light into our world this past year,” Avila says. “It becomes a beautiful, very special time.”

But before that part of the celebration, there’s a feast that includes bunuelos (Mexican fritters) with caramel, a beverage called atole, flavored with orange or chocolate, a hot toddy called ponche caliente and, of course, tamales, which are made of corn dough and stuffed with a variety of fillings.

The most popular filling is red chili and meat, but a family favorite with the Avilas is Tamales Rajas y Queso. Avila is willing to share that recipe and add a few shortcuts, including: making tamales ahead and freezing them, using already-prepared masa (corn dough) and canned chilies and using wax paper to hold tamales together, rather than the traditional tying with string. (See recipe on this page.)

But, she cautions, tamale-making still isn’t easy. The best approach for novices, she says, is to learn by helping someone who already knows the technique.

Vietnamese cooking can take some time to master too, according to Nguyen. For instance, she says, a sticky rice cake filled with meat, beans and vegetables is formed in a square shape by people who come from North Vietnam and in a cylinder by people from the south. And people from the central portion of the country may make dishes differently from those favored by the other two regions.

Nguyen, owner of La Thu Dancewear in Fountain Valley, is not Vietnamese herself. She has, however, readily embraced Vietnamese culture during her 15-year-marriage to Phung Nguyen, whom she met when she was helping resettle Vietnamese refugees.

“I think I’m more Vietnamese than I am American anymore,” she says. She speaks fluent Vietnamese and teaches English in Garden Grove to Vietnamese residents age 60 and older.

Together, the Nguyens have built quite a family. She has three children from a previous marriage, and they have three children together. They also have five adopted Vietnamese children, all of whom are adults now. And over the years, they were foster parents to 29 children, most of whom were Vietnamese. The largest number of children to live in the house at one time, she says with a chuckle, was 13.

Nguyen is well aware of the regional differences in Vietnamese cuisine, because, she says, “some of my kids are central, some of them are south and my husband’s north, so lucky me!”

When it comes to holidays, Nguyen does her best to blend American and Vietnamese foods and cultures. Though Christmas is not widely celebrated in Vietnam, the Nguyen Christmas Eve feast includes such typical celebration or party foods as egg rolls, barbecued beef on a stick, sticky rice, fried rice, noodles, pork or roast duck.

She says a lot of Vietnamese recipes are popular with Americans, but a marinated chicken she makes is “really a favorite with everybody I know. It’s wonderful.” In this recipe, chicken is marinated in fresh ginger, soy sauce, onions, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and then baked or grilled. She says the unusual spices really give it a special flavor. (See recipe on N13.)

While meat is an important part of Vietnamese holiday food, Polish Catholics have a tradition of fasting on Christmas Eve day and enjoying a variety of meatless dishes for the evening meal, according to Lento.

Lento was born in Gary, Ind., but her parents returned to Poland when she was a baby. She returned to Gary in 1938. “My brother became 21 and they told him to join the Polish army or get out, because we were American citizens, so we got out,” she recalls. Later, she married Frank Lento, who is of Italian descent. They have lived in Orange County since 1974.

She says a Polish Catholic Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve, around 7 p.m., “when the first star appears.” Family members share an oplatek, a sort of communion wafer, and wish each other well. The family then sits down to dinner, leaving an empty chair for unexpected guests.

The meal might include a bread called babka; trout or herring in sour cream; a buckwheat dish called kasza; potatoes with butter, parsley and dill; barszcz, a type of soup that may be made of beets or onions and sour cream); kluski z makiem, wide noodles topped with honey, poppy seeds and butter; sauteed mushrooms and poppy seed rolls for dessert.

The meal also will include pierogi, which is perhaps one of the best-known Polish dishes and the most requested recipe, Lento says. Pierogi is a pasta that is stuffed, sort of like a ravioli or won ton.

All sorts of stuffings might be used, including cheese, mushrooms, sauerkraut, potatoes or meat. Since Christmas Eve is a meatless meal, Lento favors pierogi stuffed with cheese or cabbage. (See recipe on N13.) Special rules are part of all the meals at Rose’s home because her family observes kosher dietary laws. “We’re probably one of the more traditional families in Orange County,” she says.

Kosher dietary laws state what food is permissible for Jews and how it should be prepared--and require that meat and dairy products not be served at the same meal. Some foods are parve, which means they are neither meat nor dairy and can be eaten with either one.

Rose calls Hanukkah, the festival of lights, a celebration of religious freedom. It commemorates Judas Maccabaeus’ rededication of the Hebrew temple in Jerusalem in the second century.

The annual celebration begins on Dec. 23 this year. Traditions include prayers, lighting of candles on the menorah, games with dreidels (spinning tops), songs, and Hanukkah gelt (money) and gifts for the children.

According to Rose, a Hanukkah party may be held any time during the eight-day celebration. Rose, who is a member of the Sisterhood at Temple Beth Emet of Orange County in Anaheim, says a typical celebration meal for Jews with an Eastern European background might include vegetable soup, roast duck or goose (though Rose says it’s difficult to find a kosher goose in Orange County), potato latkes with applesauce, orange and avocado salad and jelly doughnuts for dessert.

Menus may vary, depending on the country of origin of a Jew’s family, but she says that everybody eats potato latkes in some form or other on Hanukkah.

Sephardic Jews, for instance, make latkes with zucchini, says Rose, who is compiling a 25th-anniversary cookbook for the Sisterhood.

Rose uses a simple and tasty potato latke recipe that can be made in the food processor and even eliminates the need for peeling the potatoes. (See recipe on this page.)

One reason latkes and doughnuts are popular on Hanukkah, Rose said, is that both are cooked in oil, which is symbolic of something miraculous--the sacramental oil in the Jerusalem temple that Judas Maccabaeus reclaimed. Although there was only enough for one day, the oil continued to burn brightly for eights days and nights.

RECIPES FOR SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISHES

TAMALES RAJAS Y QUESOFrom Maria Elena Avila

Ingredients

(Makes 4 dozen)

6 lbs. masa preparada--available at tortillerias (Mexican bakeries)

3 bags of corn husks (available at Mexican markets)

2 large cans of whole Ortega chilies (27 ounces)

5 lbs. Monterey Jack cheese

Preparation

Note: This recipe requires a tamale steamer, available in Mexican markets, starting at about $10.

Wash husks thoroughly and soak in water for a day. Drain and shake off excess water. Eliminate husks less than 4 inches wide. Drain liquid off chilies and cut into strips 1/2-inch wide. Cut cheese into strips 1/2 inch by 3 inches. Spread about 2 tablespoons of masa on husk, over area about 3 inches wide and 3 inches long. Place two strips of chilies and two strips of cheese on top of masa. Gently fold over sides of husk and fold bottom of husk upward. Leave open at top. Wrap tightly in square of wax paper, place in plastic bags and put in freezer. When ready to serve, remove from freezer and place (with wax paper intact) in tamale steamer with boiling water. Cover and steam for about 1 1/2 hours. Don’t pack tamales into steamer too tight. Allow room for steam to circulate thoroughly. To check doneness, open one tamale in middle of steamer and one at edge. When dough easily separates from husk, tamales should be done. Serve with salsa.

SALSA DE RAJASIngredients

4 fresh California chilies

4 chili gueros (yellow chilies)

3 medium tomatoes

One large garlic clove

Salt to taste

Preparation

Toast chilies on a grill. Remove when lightly browned, place in plastic bag and seal. Allow to steam in own juices for a few minutes. Then remove chilies from bag, peel and remove seeds. Using food processor, blend garlic and guero chilies. Add tomatoes, and blend just until tomatoes are chunky. Salt to taste. Cut California chilies into strips 2 inches by 3/8 inch and add to salsa mixture. Serve on the side with tamales.

CHICKEN WITH SPICES IN MARINADEFrom Mary Nguyen

Ingredients

6 to 8 pieces of chicken

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 tbs. sugar

1 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped fine

2 tsp. chopped onion

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. powdered garlic

1/2 tsp. cloves

4 garlic cloves, mashed

Preparation

Mix all ingredients except chicken in a bowl. Place chicken pieces in shallow pan or dish and pour marinade over chicken. Marinate in refrigerator overnight. Remove chicken from marinade. You may broil chicken or barbecue to desired doneness or bake in 325-degree oven until golden, about 1 hour.

PIEROGIFrom Stella Lento

Ingredients

(Makes about two dozen)

2 egg yolks

1 egg white beaten

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup cold water

2 tbs. sour cream

Preparation

Mix all ingredients and knead into dough. (A food processor can be used if desired.) When dough becomes soft and pliable, empty it onto floured board. Divide dough into fourths and roll with rolling pin until dough is as thin as pie crust. Use knife to cut dough into 2-inch by 2 1/2-inch sections.

Place a sparing tablespoon of filling (see recipe below) on one side of each section. Do not overstuff. Then fold each section into a triangle and pinch the edges tightly together.

Lower pierogi into boiling salted water (at least 2 quarts) and boil briskly for 5 to 6 minutes (or until it floats). Cook only one layer of pierogi at a time or they will stick together. Carefully remove from water, brush with clarified, melted butter and serve hot.

CHEESE FILLINGIngredients

1 pound hoop cheese (similar to cottage cheese)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp. salt

1 level tbs. sour cream

2 tbs. sugar (optional)

Cinnamon to taste (optional)

Preparation

Beat egg and egg yolk. Add salt, sour cream, sugar and cinnamon and mix with hoop cheese. Let stand for a few minutes.

CABBAGE FILLINGIngredients

1 coarsely chopped cabbage

1/2 tsp. salt

1 medium onion

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 tbs. fresh dill

Preparation

Parboil cabbage until soft, but not mushy. Drain off water and chop cabbage until fine and set aside. Brown onion and mushrooms in butter. Add salt, pepper, dill and cabbage to mixture and saute. Allow to cool some before filling pierogi.

POTATO LATKES OR PANCAKESFrom Arlene Rose

Ingredients

(Makes 15 to 20 latkes, 2 inches in diameter)

5 medium potatoes

2 tbs. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

4 tbs. grated onion

4 eggs

Vegetable shortening

Preparation

Wash potatoes well (no need to peel). Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor with slicing blade. Pulse until coarsely grated. Melt enough shortening in large skillet to create a depth of 1/4 inch. Heat until a drop of batter makes shortening sizzle. Drop mixture into shortening by tablespoonful. Turn when brown. Drain on paper towels. These potato latkes can be made ahead and heated in a 400-degree oven for 5 minutes. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.