The Yule Almendrado

Mexican Christmas dinners are a tradition in my house. It's fun to hunt out interesting new recipes and to shop for ingredients and decorations while traveling. This year's itinerary took me to from Mexico City to Puebla, then out to the gulf coast of Veracruz and over to Oaxaca--areas so rich in cuisine that I came back overloaded with ideas for dinner.

Because people are overwhelmed with elaborate food during the holidays, I settled on dishes that are light and easy to handle, both for the guests and the cook.

The main course, almendrado de pollo, is chicken in a tomato-almond sauce, from Oaxaca. This is not a complex Oaxacan mole but a simple combination of tomatoes, broth, ground almonds and sliced chicken. It's not spicy. The only seasonings are salt and pepper. You can make it in the morning, then heat the chicken in the sauce just before serving.

The rice that accompanies the chicken will be tinted green with spinach--another Oaxacan concept. It will also contain corn--certainly not the juicy sweet corn that we get in the summer, but starchier corn, more like that of Mexico.

Instead of refried or boiled beans, there will be calabacitas--squash seasoned with oregano and thyme, two herbs that appear often in Mexican cuisine. I'll use the pale green zucchini that is labeled "Mexican squash" in some Latino markets as opposed to "Italian squash," which is ordinary dark green zucchini. The flavor is more delicate, in my opinion.

The appetizer will be guacamole, spread on toasted bolillo slices instead of tortilla chips. I'll season it with anise-scented Mexican avocado leaves, ground to a powder. You can buy the powder in some parts of Mexico. Mine came from the market in Coatepec, Veracruz. Occasionally sacks of the dried leaves turn up in Oaxacan markets here, supplied by backyard growers.

There won't be margaritas, because mixing them for company is a real chore. Each has to be composed separately so that the balance of flavors is perfect. I also shake them by hand, which requires spending more time with the cocktail shaker than with the guests. Instead, I'm serving Mexican wine, a Tempranillo from Bodegas de Santo Tomas in Ensenada. It's a fruity red, a good match for the chicken.