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This year, a friend cracked the idea behind the perfect Christmas gift. She got whoever was heading home for the holidays, maternity pants as a joke. To be fair, the pants were ugly as heck, but they were incredibly thoughtful—because if you don’t have a food baby after Christmas lunch, I’m sorry to say, but you’re clearly doing it wrong. Like several other festivals celebrated in India, food is an integral part of it all. In this case, a feast with your family is for lack of better words; Christmas 101.
Over the years, I assumed a glazed, stuffed Christmas Roast, accompanied by a curry, some pulao and maybe a few more side dishes made for a standard Christmas feast in most households—until I moved states and learnt that Christmas feasts were more representative of India’s diversity than I could have ever fathomed...
[Disclaimer: Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach out to a larger spectrum of Christian Aunties this year, but hopefully, next year, we’ll have a larger collection!]
I. Ammini Thomas
A contribution straight out of Cochin, via Thomas Zacharias (Executive Chef, The Bombay Canteen), Ammini Thomas’ Christmas recipes stayed true to her home town Kerala. As Thomas says, “She never relied on Western staples like roast turkey or ham, but over time developed a repertoira of delicious Kerala Christmas recipes which we all gladly indulged in.” His favourite of these dishes was her Duck and Potato Curry, a recipe he has emulated (albeit with his own twists) at The Bombay Canteen’s Christmas spread this year. Besides her famed curry, Chicken Roast & Pork Roast also made the cut, each cooked in a way familiar to their palates. While the Chicken Roast is cooked in a kadhai (much like a wok, says Thomas) along with caramelised, fried onions, potatoes, and more; the Pork Roast features a thicker gravy. Big slices of beef, assembled and cooked with vinegar, coconut milk, black pepper and more—a family recipe—was also a Christmas favourite. Ammini Thomas also made homemade wine (Date Wine, Amla Wine and Pineapple Wine), Appams, Rice (Kerala rice, which differs from the regular Basmati rice), and bread. Christmas Cake would wrap the whole meal up, towards the end.
II. Dorothy Lewis
A proper Mangalorean at heart, Dorothy firmly believes in an equal ratio of Christmas sweets to Christmas dishes on her table. Her table’s centerpiece this year is a full Chicken Roast, with a stuffing of cold cuts, besides the Mangalorean Pork, a spicy recipe that’s been around in the family for over a 100 years now! Appams and Date Wine (homemade, of course) are served along with the food as the ideal sides, followed by a barrage of Christmas sweets that she jokes nearly didn’t make it out of the kitchen as her grandkids got to it first. Christmas Cake, Milk Cream (a soft milk-based fudge, of sorts), Marzipan (sweetened, ground almond or cashew paste), Guava Cheese, and Kalkals (fried pastry made up of flour, eggs and coconut milk, dusted with sugar) are some of the many treats she’s prepared.
III. Sophia Netto
Known for her scrumptious feasts all around Bandra, Sophia Netto’s Christmas feast is cooked up keeping in mind that there’s going to be (a lot) more than just her own family at the table. Orange & Beer Chicken, Pork Vindaloo (traditional Goan curry comprising of chillies and vinegar) and Roast Beef (buffalo meat, calm down), are merely her getting warmed up. Besides these, she is also prepping Chicken With Christmas Stuffing (two big ones!) for the feast. To accompany these dishes, there’ll be Veg Bake, Tossed Salad and Veg Rice. The Veg Rice though, she explains, is what most people call wedding rice as it contains dry fruits and is more of a pulao than just rice. “I just call it my Christmas rice though,” she laughs.
Of course, if her food menu comprised of the above, her list of Christmas sweets wouldn’t be far behind! Christmas Cake, Milk Cream, Walnut Fudge, Rum Cake, Date Rolls, Kalkals, and Nankhatais (flaky Indian cookie) specifically dotted with red & green tutti-frutti all make for a grand end to this feast.
IV. Kuku Ravi
As a Syrian Christian, pork doesn’t play an integral part of this Christmas menu—but that doesn’t stop Kuku Ravi in the slightest when it comes to throwing a large Christmas feast. A Duck Roast (which she specifies can be fried too, but hers is coated with a thick gravy) makes for the highlight of their Christmas lunch this year, besides a Kerala favourite, Steamed Pearl Spot Fish In A Banana Leaf. “The entire fish is wrapped up in a leaf, with our masala and coconut gravy and then steamed. It is served within the leaf itself, so each person gets to open it up on the table,” she explains. Throw in some good ol’ Beef Fry, Appams, Kerala Rice, Salad and ‘Coconut Chips’ (she kindly phrased it like that only so I’d understand better) a dish made up of tiny, little squares of coconuts that are cut fine and then fried with ghee; come together to promise one heck of a food coma after.
Perhaps a Fish Moilee will make an appearance too, she says, while laughing about how in general, their feast consists of a lot of meat on their table. As for dessert? Her answer only leaves one more wistful, “Dessert is done differently, I like to make something that isn’t made normally, or something different that we haven’t tried for a long, long time. This year’s dessert will likely revolve around coffee and chocolate.”
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