page_title: Puerto Rican cuisine
section_title: Christmas dishes
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Rican cuisine / Puerto Rican dishes / Christmas dishes
caption_attribution_description: English: Puerto Rican flan
context_page_description: Puerto Rican cuisine has its roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Europe, Africa and the native Taínos. Starting from the latter part of the 19th century. Puerto Rican cuisine can be found in several other countries.
context_section_description: Puerto Rican culture can be seen and felt all year-round, but it is on its greatest display during Christmas when people celebrate the traditional aguinaldo and parrandas – Puerto Rico's version of carol singing. Puerto Ricans celebrate what is probably the world's longest Christmas. The festivities get underway on 23 November and last until the end of January when the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián take place. Puerto Rican food is a main part of this celebration. Christmas expresses the best flavors of Puerto Rico with staple foods, textures, and tradition. Christmas food in Puerto Rico is meant to accommodate every palate. 
  Arroz con gandules – Yellow-rice-and-pigeon-pea dish. Sofríto and annatto oil plays the biggest part in flavoring and coloring rice. Alcaparrado (capers and olives stuffed with red peppers), pieces of pork, spices, bay leaves, banana leaf and broth.
  Beverages – The official Puerto Rican Christmas drink is coquito, an eggnog-like rum and coconut milk-based homemade beverage. The holiday season is also a time that many piñas coladas are prepared, underscoring the combination of pineapples and coconuts seen in Puerto Rican cuisine. Beer is popular and Puerto Rican style rum punch with sparkling wine and fruit.
  Chuletón – Christmas soup. A variety of beans cooked with sofríto, sazón, pork chops, pork bones, ham, smoked ham hock, salchichón, potatoes, and carrots. This soup is served on Christmas with bread and is not part or the Nochebuena (the good night)  festival.
  Escabeche de Guineo con Mollejas – Unripe, green bananas and chicken gizzards pickled in a garlicky brine.
  Pasteles – For many Puerto Rican families, the quintessential holiday season dish is pasteles ("pies"), usually not a sweet pastry or cake, but a soft dough-like mass wrapped in a banana or plantain leaf and boiled, and in the center chopped meat, shellfish, chicken, raisins, spices, capers, olives, sofrito, and often garbanzo beans. Puerto Rican pasteles are made from either green bananas or starchy tropical roots. The wrapper in a Puerto Rican pastel is a banana leaf.
  Lechón – Pork is central to Puerto Rican holiday cooking, especially the lechón (spit-roasted piglet). Holiday feasts might include several pork dishes, such as pernil (a baked fresh pork shoulder seasoned in adobo mojado), morcilla (a black blood sausage), and jamón con piña (ham and pineapple).
  Ensaladas – Most Puerto Rican tables on the holidays have one or two salads. A topical salad would be potato salad with peppers, onions, mayonnaise and with or without chorizo. Macaroni salad with peppers, onions, tomatoes and can tuna or spam. The macaroni is tossed usually in mayonnaise or vinegar and olive oil. Octopus with a citrus vinaigrette and tropical fruits.
  Dulce – Sweets are common in Puerto Rican cuisine. During the holidays, the most popular are desserts such as Arroz con dulce  rice pudding made with milk, coconut milk, spices, ginger, raisins, and rum. Budín de Pan (bread pudding), Bienmesabe - little yellow cakes soaked in coconut cream, Brazo Gitano - Puerto Rican style sponge cake with cream and / or fruit filling, Buñuelos de viento - Puerto Rican wind puffs soaked in a vanilla, lemon, and sugar syrup, Natilla - (spice-milk custard), Tembleque (coconut pudding), Flan (egg custard), Flancocho - cake mix, cream cheese, caramel, and egg custard mix backed together using then flan method, Bizcocho de Ron (rum cake), Mantecaditos - Puerto Rican shortbread cookies, Polvorones - a crunchy cookie with a dusty sweet cinnamon exterior, Turrón de Ajónjolí - a toasted sesame seed bar, bound together by honey and caramelized brown sugar,  Mampostiales - very thick, gooey candy bar of caramelized brown sugar and coconut chips, challenging to chew and with a strong, almost molasses-like flavor, Dulce de cassabanana - musk cucumber cooked in syrup topped with walnuts and sour cream on the side, pastelillos de guayaba (guava pastries), Besitos de Coco (coconut kisses), and  Tarta de Guayaba (guava tarts).
caption: Puerto Rican cuisine has several recipes for flan, including coffee, coconut cream, breadfruit, pineapple, pumpkin, carrot, cheese and many more.
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