Why the Holidays Smell Like Culantro and Cleaning Products for this Cooking Expert

Sofrito

Sofrito just gives you a huge jump-start” says Ramos. She recommends cooking a huge batch and freezing it to save time later—just portion it into ice cube trays and cover it with Glad Cling Wrap, then pop one out when you need it. Everyone tailors theirs to their own taste, and hers includes onions, garlic, tomatoes, bunches of cilantro and its more intense sibling culantro, and a trio of peppers: long green cubanelle, red bell, and the small, sweet ají dulce. Ramos uses this powerful kitchen shortcut in recipes like arroz con gandules and picadillo for stuffing into pasteles and empanadas, but also recommends creating your own mix for dishes that could use a quick start—just toss some into a pan instead of chopping and prepping onions, garlic, and other veggies from scratch.

Mortar and Pestle

Practically every cuisine uses something similar, no matter what they call it—molcajete, batán, or (in Puerto Rico) pilón. Ramos uses the one her mom gave her when she left for college to grind cumin, coriander, and black pepper. “There’s nothing more fragrant than freshly cracked, hand-ground spices,” she says. With a few swift movements, the pilón can speed up prep work—working even faster than a food processor. Ramos loves using it to make mojo for serving with tostones. “I can feel the garlic soften, eventually becoming smooth and spreadable.”

Adobo and Sazón

When adobo and sazón spice mixes perfume the air, anywhere smells like home for Ramos. Everyone can make their own personalized version, customized to their own taste; Ramos makes her Puerto Rican-style adobo with garlic powder, black pepper, salt, oregano, and turmeric. For sazón, she adds coriander, smoky cumin, and the all-important achiote, which imparts a rich, orangey-red hue to rice, soups, and even roast turkey. “Color and flavor go together in a lot of Latinx dishes,” says Ramos. “Food should look as bold and beautiful as it tastes.”

Sour Oranges

Winter holidays coincide with citrus season, bringing sunny scents to the table. As sour as a lime but with the fragrant floral sweetness of oranges, naranja agria, or Seville oranges, provide tang to the slow-roasted pork shoulder marinade pernil. Ramos adapts it to a turkey brine, even stuffing the fruits inside the bird as it roasts. She also adds the zest to flan, rice pudding, or polvorones – little round sugar-dusted almond shortbread cookies. If you can’t find sour oranges, Ramos suggests mixing equal parts orange and lime juice for something close.

Glad Trash Bags for Mamá’s Deep Clean

Before stocking up on holiday favorites like plantains, sour oranges, and coconut, Ramos kicks off the season the same way her mom did: cleaning the fridge. She makes space for the groceries, “but there’s also a superstitious element,” she says—it gets rid of the old energy for a fresh start.

When Mamá turned up the Spanish radio, salsa and love ballads rang through the house and they got to work. “Cleaning and music always went together,” says Ramos. “I forever associate Julio Iglesias’s low, murmuring voice with the smell of lemony furniture polish.” Her mom always started in the kitchen by pulling out the big trash bags, tossing leftovers and expired items, and reorganizing to make space for all the holiday food soon to take over. Now, Ramos starts the celebration season the same way: playing Latin music classics and propping up a Glad ForceFlex trash bag by the fridge as she digs in.

Celebrating the holidays in New York always means being far from family in Puerto Rico, but when Ramos starts cooking in her newly clean kitchen, she is filled with the smells of sofrito, the sound of the pilón smashing garlic, and the glow of holiday spirit. Food can’t physically transport her, but cooking the same flavors as her mom and grandmother before her still brings relatives close—and always tastes like celebration.