Recipes

Fresh Jamaica Cooler

Fresh Jamaica Cooler

Jamaica Fresca
Jamaica is a dried reddish-purple flower related to the hibiscus. The dried blossoms are steeped and sweetened to make a traditional cold drink with a bright cranberry color and a tart crisp flavor. Look for jamaica in cellophane packages in Mexican markets, and in the Mexican section of some supermarkets.
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Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

Instructions

  • In a medium nonreactive pan, put the jamaica blossoms in 1 cup of boiling water and simmer over low heat 3 minutes.
  • Pour the mixture into a large glass container and add the cold water and ¼ cup sugar.
  • Cover and steep 4 hours in the refrigerator.
  • Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a glass pitcher.
  • Stir in additional sugar, if desired.
  • Serve, over ice, in tall glasses.
  • Store, covered, in the refrigerator up to 4 days.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Jamaica / Mexican

Watermelon Cooler

Watermelon Cooler

Sandia Fresca
Mexico produces the reddest, sweetest watermelons imaginable, and a fresca made with watermelon is one of the most refreshing drinks on a hot day.
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Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients

Makes about 4 servings

Instructions

  • Purée the watermelon and lime juice in a blender until smooth.
  • Pour over ice in tall glasses.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Mexican

Mango-Orange Punch

Mango-Orange Punch

Ponche de Mango-Naranja
Ponches is the name given to thin fruit punches that contain blended fresh fruits and fruits juices. Sometimes tea, wine, or another beverage is added to the punch. Blend the fruit of a juicy sweet mango with fresh orange juice for a truly quenching summer drink.
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Ingredients

Makes about 4 servings

Instructions

  • Peel ½ of the mango with a sharp thin-bladed knife.
  • Cut the peeled half of the fruit away from the pit, cutting as close to the seed as possible.
  • Turn the fruit over, holding it in the palm of your hand, and peel the remaining half.
  • Cut that half away from the pit as before.
  • Discard the seed.
  • Cut the fruit into small pieces and put in a blender.
  • Add the remaining ingredients and purée as smoothly as possible.
  • Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher, pressing on the solids to release all the juices.
  • Discard the pulp.
  • Serve over ice cubes in tall glasses.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Mexican

Banana-Mango Drink

Banana-Mango Drink

Licuado de Plátano y Mango
Add cold milk to the fresh fruit in a blended drink, and it becomes a licuado, another type of fresca, or fresh drink. This creamy, rich drink is delicious and satisfying.
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Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

Instructions

  • To peel and cut up the mango, cut ½ of the mango away from the flat oval seed with a sharp paring knife.
  • Then lay the cut half on a flat surface, skin side down, and make cross-cuts on the fruit, separating the flesh into cubes.
  • (Do not cut through the peel.
  • ) Push the fruit inside out and cut the cubes off the peel.
  • Discard the peel and put the pieces of fruit in a blender jar.
  • Add the remaining ingredients and purée until smooth.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve cold.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Mexican

Banana-Strawberry Drink

Banana-Strawberry Drink

Licuado de Plátano y Fresa
Licuados are another type of fresca that's often blended with milk instead of water. Soft ripe fruit makes the most flavorful drinks. Bananas and sweet strawberries blended with milk or yogurt is great for breakfast. Mexican yogurt is very good and is sold there at many fruit drink establishments where you may choose either milk or yogurt in your licuado.
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Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

  • 1 large ripe banana peeled and cut into chunks
  • 8 to 10 red ripe strawberries hulled and halved
  • 2 cups cold low-fat milk or yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar

Instructions

  • Put all of the ingredients in a blender and purée until smooth.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve cold.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Mexican

Strawberry Cooler

Strawberry Cooler

Fresca de Fresas Try this agua fresca (fresh fruit drink) when strawberries are in season. Be sure to use bright red ripe berries for the best flavor.
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Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients

Makes about 6 servings

Instructions

  • In a blender place 2 cups fresh berries.
  • Add 1 cup water, cover and blend.
  • Add more water, if necessary, but just enough to blend to a smooth liquid of drinking consistency, but not too thin.
  • Sweeten with sugar.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve cold.
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Course; Cold Drinks / Fruit
Cuisine; Mexican

Melon Horchata

Melon Horchata

Horchata de Melon This horchata, a refreshing cold drink, is made from cantaloupe and is a favorite. It may seem strange to use the seeds along with the melon flesh, but that’s the custom, and the resulting drink is very good. Another well-known horchata is made with rice.
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Ingredients

Makes about 4 servings

Instructions

  • Cut the cantaloupe in half.
  • With a spoon, scoop out the flesh and seeds (there will be about 2 cups).
  • Put the melon and seeds in a blender with the lime juice and sugar.
  • Add 2 cups of cold water, and blend 1 minute, or until very smooth.
  • Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a glass container.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve over ice.
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Course; Cold Drinks
Cuisine; Mexican

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Chocolate Mexicana
Just about everybody loves a steaming cup of Mexican hot chocolate. The round tablets of authentic Mexican chocolate are widely available in most supermarkets in the United States. The tablets weigh about 3 ounces and are already sweetened with sugar and flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and sometimes ground almonds. Some of the best-tasting Mexican chocolate is processed in the states of Tabasco and Oaxaca, where there are many cacao plantations, and anyone who travels to those areas will want to bring home some of the special blends.This drink is delightfully frothy. In Mexico, a molinillo (hand-made wooden chocolate beater) is the traditional tool to froth the hot chocolate, but you can use an electric beater or an immersion blender as well.
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Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

  • 2 6 ounces tablets Mexican chocolate (such as Ibarra or Auelita brands), chopped or broken into pieces
  • 4 cups whole or 2% milk

Instructions

  • Put the chocolate and milk in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring, until the chocolate is melted, 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Remove the pan from the heat and beat until frothy with an electric beater on slow speed.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve hot.
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Course; Chocolate / Hot drinks
Cuisine; Mexican

Coffee Popo

Coffee Popo

Café de Popo
This hot coffee drink is dedicated to the late Al Williams, who was born in Mexico, and became famous for the legendary Papagayo Room, a gourmet Mexican restaurant in San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel. Al and his wife, Katherine Williams, later ran a cooking school where I had some of my first lessons in Mexican cooking. The drink is named for the Mexican volcano, Popocatepetl, as Al said, "Hot below, snow-capped above."
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Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

  • Sweetened Whipped Cream
  • 3 teaspoons sugar or to taste
  • 2 lemon peel strips 2-inches long × 1⁄2-inch wide
  • 2 ounces añejo aged or reposado (rested) tequila
  • 2 cups strong freshly brewed hot coffee

Instructions

  • Prepare the whipped cream.
  • Reserve.
  • Put 1 teaspoon of sugar in each of 2 double old-fashioned glasses or coffee cups.
  • Twist the lemon peels and drop 1 into each glass or cup.
  • Add 1 ounce tequila to each, then fill the cups with hot coffee.
  • Top each with whipped cream.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve hot.
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Course; Hot drinks
Cuisine; Mexican