In my family, Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena, is the year’s biggest celebration. When I was a child, it was the night when all of my uncles, titis (Puerto Ricans often call aunts titi or tía), and cousins gathered at our house for a huge dinner and incredible desserts.

In the holiday episode of “Alma’s Way,” excitement is in the air as Alma and her family get ready for their Nochebuena festivities. Alma and her little brother Junior look forward to many holiday traditions, such as creating a new ornament for their tree, feasting on Mami’s polvorones, and enjoying Papi’s famous display of light animals. The Riveras’ bustling preparations, and frustrations when things don’t go as planned, are relatable to any family caught up in the spirit of the season. And as a Puerto Rican who grew up in Queens, New York, I feel a special kinship to Alma’s family traditions; several are similar to mine!

Just like Alma’s cousin Eddie strumming aguinaldos, or Puerto Rican Christmas carols, for the family to sing, my Uncle Bob played his guitar while we all tried our best to sing “The 12 Days of Christmas,” which was hilarious and challenging!

These days, I feel fortunate to share our Latino family celebrations with my child. Our family has grown, and many of my uncles, titis, and cousins, now with their children, still gather at my mother’s house in Nochebuena to feast on some of our family’s favorite Puerto Rican Christmas foods.

I’ve gathered a few of our Nochebuena recipes for you to make with your family!

Tostones, or fried plantains, make a great side dish any time of the year. For a gathering like Nochebuena, tostones are the perfect appetizer to please a crowd. I have fun memories of helping my mom and titi make tostones. We’d form an assembly line, with my mom and titi handling the cutting and frying and the children lending a hand for the smashing!

To make tostones, grab a few unripe green plantains and remove the peels. Slice each plantain into half-inch thick rounds, then fry the rounds in vegetable oil for about two minutes on each side. Once the plantains are removed from the oil, set them on a cutting board. Press each plantain flat, using a plate or a tostonera. (A tostonera is a wooden kitchen tool that opens and closes like a book, squashing the plantain in the middle.) This is a great job for any children in the family! Once the tostones have been flattened, dip them in a bowl of cool water, then fry again for about a minute on each side. Let fried tostones cool on a towel-lined plate, season with plenty of salt, and enjoy!

I’m not sure I’ve celebrated Christmas Eve without flan on the dessert table. Flan is a delicious custard cake. Once you’ve perfected your method of melting sugar into a smooth caramel, flan is simple to make!

Start by melting a cup of granulated sugar in a saucepan over a medium flame. Watch the sugar carefully, but do not stir. Once the sugar begins to melt, carefully tilt the saucepan from side to side until it becomes a molten amber liquid. Coat the bottom of a deep cake pan with the caramel (be very careful not to touch the caramel, and handle the cake pan with oven mitts!) and set aside. Next, combine a can of evaporated milk, a can of sweetened condensed milk, a teaspoon of vanilla, and six whole eggs in a bowl and mix well. Pour the milk and egg mixture over the caramel and cover with aluminum foil.

Create a water bath for baking by nesting the cake pan into a larger roasting pan. Carefully add hot water to the roasting pan, until it reaches about an inch up the side of the cake pan. Bake the flan in the water bath at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until the flan is wobbly, but no longer liquid– more like the consistency of jello. Once the flan is out of the oven, let it cool before turning it over onto a plate.

One of my most vivid childhood memories at my grandmother’s apartment involves delicious, crumbly little butter cookies called mantecaditos, or as Alma’s family calls them, polvorones. My grandmother always kept a stash of store-bought mantecaditos, which I would eat methodically. First, I nibbled the outer ring, then stacked two or three jelly centers together and ate them in one bite. Whether you call them polovorones or mantecaditos, these little cookies are delicious, pretty, and often given as Christmas gifts.

To make mantecaditos, combine a half cup each of butter, shortening, and sugar in a bowl. Mix well with a teaspoon of almond extract and a large pinch of salt. Finally, add about two cups of flour and combine until you have a crumbly dough. (You may need to add more flour if the dough is too sticky.)

Use your hands to roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough and place them on a cookie sheet. Invite any children in the house to press little dents into the center of each cookie using their thumbs. Fill the dents with any jam you like (or rainbow sprinkles!). Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes, until golden and crispy.

Ready to keep cooking? There are plenty more Puerto Rican foods to enjoy at Nochebuena. Other well-loved dishes include arroz con gandules (seasoned rice with pigeon peas), pernil (Puerto Rican roast pork), rellenos de platanos (stuffed sweet plantains) and budín de pan (bread pudding).

Source: PBS Kids