Ensalada de Nochebuena

This is a central Mexican dish. Ciudad de México, Puebla, Tlaxcala, the Bajio. The Nochebuena salad sits at the center of the Christmas Eve table after the bacalao and before the romeritos, and every household in this region builds it a little differently. The shape changes. The fruits rotate with the market. The principle does not.

Tejocote is the ingredient that tells you this salad is Mexican and that it is December. The small yellow-orange hawthorn fruit comes into the markets in late November and disappears by January. It is the same fruit that goes into the ponche navideño simmering on the stove next to this salad. If you cannot find tejocote fresh, the jarred ones in syrup at a Mexican grocery will do. If you cannot find either, the salad is missing its anchor. Find a Mexican market before December. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.

The other rule is layering. Ensalada de Nochebuena is not tossed. It is composed on a wide platter or in a glass bowl so the colors stay separate: the deep magenta of the beet, the white of the jicama, the orange of the citrus, the pale yellow of the apple, the ruby of the pomegranate. This is the table centerpiece for the most important meal of the Mexican Catholic year. It is supposed to look like Christmas. The flavor matters and the picture matters equally.

My mother made this every Nochebuena until the year she died. Her notebook has the recipe on the same page as the bacalao, in the same blue pen, with a note in the margin that says 'cacahuates con cascara, siempre.' Peanuts with skins on, always. She was right. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.