Christmas cuisine: From milk cream to duck curry, chefs share festive family recipes

Each year, the feast of Christmas becomes more about parties, pomp and show and moves further away from a familial celebration. But Christmas is meant to be about tradition. Instagram and Pinterest may throw up enticing photos of roast turkey with gravy and mince pies, but deep down, we all crave the home-cooked meals we grew up savouring on Christmas day. It is the wealth of yuletide culinary delights made at home that comprise the best Christmas spread. And these meals are as much about memories, as they are about flavours.

We spoke with chefs across Christian communities in India, to reminisce over the the traditional Christmas specialties they grew up eating:

Ammini’s Duck Curry by Chef Thomas Zacharias, Executive Chef and Partner, The Bombay Canteen

Christmas was that lovely time of the year when the entire family would get together at my grandmother Ammini’s home in Kochi regardless of where we were based. Right after an entire morning spent opening gifts from under the Christmas tree, we would all sit together and relish the incredible festive spread. She would cook a whole bunch of our favourite dishes and the dining table would be filled to the brim with all kinds of meat and seafood.

My favourite among these dishes was her Duck and Potato Curry cooked with shallots, green chili, vinegar and lots of black pepper. Being rich and unctuous and almost a luxury (duck is expensive!), this dish was reserved only for special occasions like this and we would look forward to eating it every time! At The Bombay Canteen, we do a slightly refined version where the flavor of the curry is still reminiscent of the original but we serve it as a boneless duck leg curry with a beautifully pan seared breast, and served with egg appams on the side to mop up the curry.

Ingredients:

1 no. duck (approx. 1.5 kg), cut into 8 smaller pieces 2 tbsp coconut oil ½ cup shallots, thinly sliced

1.5 tbsp black peppercorns 1 tbsp coriander powder 1 tsp red chilli powder

2 cups thickly sliced onions 2-3 nos green chillies, slit 1 tbsp ginger, thinly sliced

2 cups coconut milk 2-3 nos potato, cut into large dice sized quarters, boiled to taste vinegar to taste salt

• In a large pot, heat coconut oil, add the thinly sliced shallots and fry till brown.

• Add the ground masala and sauté on low heat till masala is cooked. Add the thickly sliced onions, ginger and green chilies and sauté till translucent.

• Add the coconut milk, duck pieces, vinegar and salt, and cook. When almost done, add the potatoes and adjust seasoning with salt.

• Serve with lacy egg appams.

Grandma’s pork stew by Chef Surajit Roy, Sous Chef — La Terrazza, Hyatt Regency Pune

Chef Surajit recalls his grandmother preparing this on Christmas and the feast would be incomplete without this comforting stew. As he prepares it now, he can recollect the aromas.

Ingredients:

400 gm pork meat (medium size pieces) 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp onion paste 1 tsp ginger paste 1/2 tsp green chilli paste 1 tsp cumin seed paste

1 tbsp mustard oil 3 nos. bay leaves 1/2 tsp cumin seed 1 nos. whole red chilli 1 tsp coriander seeds

• Marinate the meat with all the paste, salt, turmeric and little mustard oil for about 1 hour. • Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into half. Marinate with pinch of salt and turmeric. • Shallow fry potatoes and keep aside. • Prepare pan roasted herbs and spices’ powder, with the bay leaf, cumin, coriander and whole red chilli. • Heat oil and butter in a pan, add a few cumin seeds, then add all the marinated meat. Stir fry till the meat leaves water. • Add water, salt and simmer on a slow flame for 10-15 min. • Add potatoes. Cook till potato and meat are tender, remove from fire. • Sprinkle ground roasted herbs and spices on top. • Serve with bread or rice.

Seafood caldeirada by Master Chef for Goan cuisine, Chef Peter, Radisson Blu Resort Goa Cavelossim Beach

According to Chef Peter, this dish is served on a large platter. Traditionally shared and eaten by the whole family together, symbolically unifying every member as one home, on Christmas Day.

Ingredients:

Sea food (150 gm each of king fish, squid, prawns, mussels) 150 gm onion rings 120 gm tomato roundels 150 gm capsicum roundels 50 gm garlic (chopped) 1 tsp tomato ketchup 10 ml white wine 40 gm olives Salt to taste

For the olive rice — Steamed rice Chopped olives 50 gm butter 1 tsp chopped fresh coriander

• Wash the seafood and marinate with salt and keep aside • Put olive oil in a frying pan; add garlic, onion rings. Fry till onions get translucent • Add water and tomato ketchup and simmer. Also add the capsicum, tomato. • Remove the tomato once its skin slips off. Add seafood and simmer till cooked. Add white wine and season the broth and thicken to a sauce.

For the olive rice —

Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan. Add the rice and chopped olives, toss for some time, add fresh coriander.

To plate — 

The rice is placed in the center of a long platter with all the seafood and vegetables on the side. The sauce is poured over the seafood.

Dukramaas (pork bafath) by Chef Roland Fernandes, Indigo Deli, deGustibus Hospitality

Most Mangaloreans swear by the dukramaas. A Christmas meal is incomplete without this pork dish. Traditionally it is eaten with sanna, and pan polle. The flavours and spices that the pork is cooked with are aromatic. Many people make it a point to make it a day before Christmas so that the flavours concentrate and are enhanced.

Ingredients:

1 kg pork (with fat) 3-4 onions (large) 2 nos. green chillies 1 pod or 10-12 big cloves of garlic 2-inch piece ginger 2-inch stick of cinnamon 4 nos. cloves 2 nos. bay leaves

1-1/2 to 2 tbsp bafat powder 2-3 tsp tamarind juice 1/2 tsp vinegar (optional) 1 level tsp salt (or to taste)

• Cut the meat into medium sized pieces (cubes) • Cut the onions into large cubes and finely chop the ginger. The garlic can be left whole by just removing the skin (if you are using Indian garlic). Slit the green chillies into half. • In a pan, put the meat along with the chillies, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, salt, tamarind juice and bafat powder. • Cook on slow fire till almost done and then add the onions and garlic. • There is no need to add water unless the meat is with almost no fat. • Serve piping hot with sanna or Mangalorean idlis.

Homemade pork sausages by Chef Clement D’cruze, Executive Chef, Hyatt Regency, Kolkata

Chef Clement D’cruze, who grew up in Kolkata, cannot imagine a Christmas without pork sausages and ham. And all home-made. No readymade stuff works for this family on Christmas. Painstakingly prepared days in advance, Chef Clement shares his secret family recipe.

Ingredients: (Makes 5-6 portions; you will need a medium-size plastic funnel to prepare this dish)

900 gm fine mince (pork with 20 percent fat, preferably shoulder meat) 75 gm chopped onion 5 gm chopped coriander leaves 5 gm chopped mint leaves 5 gm chopped parsley 2 tbsp cider vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 2 gm garam masala powder Pork intestine (cleaned and washed)/ sausage casing

For the mixture —

• Take all the above ingredients in a bowl, except the intestine. • Mix well to a smooth but thick paste (ensure that there are no lumps).

To fill —

• Pull the intestine/sausage casing on the funnel tube. Fill the funnel with the mixture. • Fill the casing by forcing the mixture into it with the help of the thumb, with the end of the casing tied. • Puncture the casing with the needle so that the trapped air is moved out during the process of filling. • Pack it as tight as possible and tie it into smaller segments (3 to 4 inches in length). • Finally when done, spray it with water to remove the adherence.

To cook — 

• Take a small kadhai and fill it with half a litre of water and 2 tbsps of oil. • Put the sausages into the kadhai and turn on the flame. • Bring it to a boil and simmer. • Cook till the water is evaporated, turning the sausages slowly from side to side, ensuring that they are handled gently. • Cook till the sausages are golden brown.

Milk Cream by Chef Paul Kinny, Culinary Director, Phoenix Mills Ltd

It is not Christmas for Chef Paul Kinny until milk cream is part of the kuswar (tray of sweets).

Ingredients:

1 ltr milk 200 gm broken cashew nut 200 gm icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 20 gm butter

• Boil the milk and allow it to reduce on a slow flame for about 1 hour. Keep stirring constantly. • Powder the broken cashew nuts in a mixer and ensure there are no lumps. • Add sugar, powdered cashew nuts, vanilla essence and butter to the simmering milk. • Keep stirring till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. • Remove the mixture in a tray and cool. • Put the mixture in rubber moulds to give desired shapes. • Remove from the mould, cool and dry the milk cream.

Have a very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!