Dashing through the Delhi fog, yet another Christmas is here. The city is lit up with dangling lights, and at least in some corners, one can hear the jingle of bells. Christmas is always, for most of us, deeply associated with home. There is something to the December chill that reminds one of home, its warmth, its comfort and its food.
For those of us who are far from home, this is a nostalgic time. The memories of family and friends warming up around the cake being baked or the chicken on the stove in the kitchen rush in. At my home on the hills of central Kerala, my mother would make chocolate, with cocoa beans from our own field. Now, with all the YouTube tutorials, a lot of people do it. But she first did it all out of hearsay and guesswork. It was far from the chocolate you bought from a shop. I always told her that it was not ‘real’ chocolate, but she would insist that it was the real thing, not the factory-made plastic-wrapped sugar blocks. Over the years, it became the Christmas special in our home, and I developed a taste for it. Now, I miss it.
Home is, as they say, where the heart is, and for those of us who delight in food, the heart is often where the oven and the stove are. For chefs in Delhi, many of whom are from different corners of the country, Christmas is a time away from their busy professional kitchens to the comfort of the ones in their homes. It’s a time when they truly cook from the heart, dishes that are dear. From a Kashmiri dessert to a pork vindaloo of Kerala, TMS finds out what’s cooking in the home-kitchens of some of the most established chefs in the city.
Parvinder Singh Bali
Corporate Chef - Learning & Development, The Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development
“The Kashmiri Shufta is a crispy and crunchy traditional dessert which is loaded with lots of nuts. Every Kashmiri celebration is incomplete without it—there is a burst of rich flavours as soon as you take a bite. The dessert is prepared using rich dry fruits like almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts and sultanas. Adding dried coconut and rose petals in the dessert makes it more flavoursome. It is a must on my Christmas menu because it has a Christmas feel because of honey, dry fruits and spices and is apt for winters. It’s a forgotten recipe from my motherland, Kashmir, and it is our responsibility to introduce people to the culture and tradition that we are losing.”
SHUFTA
Ingredients
Almonds - 30 gms
Pistachio deshelled - 20 gms
Walnuts - 20 gms
Dried apricots - 30 gms
Cranberries - 20 gms
Black currants - 10 gms
Black raisins - 20 gms
Dried Kopra - 20 gms
Cottage cheese - 200 gms
Saffron - 1 gm
Green cardamom - 5
Cinnamon stick - 1
Ginger powder – 1 gm
Black pepper - 2 gms
Petals -- From one rose
Ghee - 250 gms (to fry nuts)
Sugar - 100 gms
Honey - 50 gms
Water
Method
1. A day prior to the cooking -- soak almonds in water, shell the pistachios, chop the dried apricots into 0.7mm cubes, slice cranberries into half horizontally, paneer into 0.7 mm cubes, slice black currants into half horizontally, cut Copra into 0.7 mm cubes, make a powder of cardamom, cinnamon and crush black pepper, and take out the rose petals.
2. On the day of the cooking, boil 2 cups of water and blanch the cottage cheese for a minute and allow to drain. Keep aside to dry.
3. Now in the same water add 3/4 cup of sugar and allow the liquid to come to a boil.
4. Add 10 saffron strands, rose petals, crushed green cardamom and cinnamon, ginger powder and black pepper crushed and simmer until the syrup is thick
5. Deep fry the cottage cheese until dark golden brown and all other nuts in ghee until light golden colour.
6. Add the paneer and nuts to the syrup and cook for few minutes
7. Add honey and serve warm.
8. It can be stored for up to three months.
Crescentia Fernandes
Chef and co-founder, Bernardo’s & Crescentia’s Kitchen
“I’m from Cochin and I am married to a Goan. The vindaloo made in Cochin is a little different from the Goan Vindaloo. It is probably closer to the Portuguese Carne de Vinha d’Alhos as it has less spice but has a lot of garlic. The Goan Vindaloo uses spices like pepper, cloves and cinnamon, which are missing in this version. However, like the Goan Vindaloo, there are no potatoes or tomatoes used. I usually do a mix of Goan and Kerala Anglo-Indian food at home and I don’t exactly stick to very traditional dishes for Christmas so this makes it an ideal dish for the day.”
PORK VINDALOO
Ingredients
Diced fatty pork with skin – 1 kg
Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 10-12 cloves
Dry red chillies - 5-6
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 large
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Any refined oil - 2 tbsp
Method
1. Soak chillies, cumin, mustard and garlic in 1/4 cup vinegar for 4-5 hours.
2. Marinate pork with 1 tsp salt, turmeric powder and ginger/garlic paste.
3. Grind soaked ingredients and the onion to a smooth paste. Heat oil, lower flame and fry the ground masala on a low heat till the oil separates.
4. Blend in the pork, fry well and add salt, and 1/2 cup vinegar. Add a pinch of sugar. Mix well and cook on slow fire till meat is tender, or pressure cook for 10-12 minutes.
Check for vinegar once it is done and add more if need be.
Suparna Saha
Corporate chef, Caara
“This recipe is a favourite as it is easy to make but is still full of flavours. And the stuffing takes it to another level as it adds an additional flavour angle.”
ROAST TURKEY WITH SAGE & APPLE STUFFING
Ingredients
US Butterball Turkey whole - 1
Onion - 500 gms
Carrot - 500 gms
Leek - 500 gms
Celery - 500 gms
Salt, black pepper - 20 gms
Thyme - 40 gms
Butter - 200 gms
For the stuffing:
Baguette - 200 gms
Unsalted butter - 60 gms
Extra virgin oil - 15 ml
Sage leaves - 20 gms, fresh
Onion chopped - 100 gms
Celery sliced - 20 gms
Black pepper- 2 gms, crushed
Green apple - 1, large
Chicken stock- 400 ml
Eggs - 2
Method
1. If the raw turkey is frozen, then thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
3. Peel the onion and the carrots. Wash the leek and the celery.
4. Roughly cut the vegetables to form a base for the turkey to rest on for roasting.
5. Take the giblets out of the turkey and wash the turkey inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the turkey cavity. Stuff the cavity with the thyme. Brush the outside of the turkey with the butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the turkey.
6. Place the turkey in a large roasting pan on the roughly chopped vegetables
7. Roast the turkey at 180°C for 2 1/2 hours, basting from time to time with pan juices, until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh. Remove the turkey to a cutting board and cover with foil; let it rest for 20 minutes. Slice the turkey and serve hot.
8. Strain all the pan juices and reduce the sauce and serve with the turkey.
9. Suggested accompaniments - roast baby potatoes or beans almandine or glazed baby carrots.
Sahil Mehta
Food Consultant and founder, Paris My Love
“A plum cake is all you need to celebrate Christmas since the 18th century across continents. This one is a French recipe altered for the Indian market with rum; we usually do the original with cognac. This, however, is flambéed with cognac after baking. It has been on my family table since the ’90s.”
CHRISTMAS PLUM CAKE
Ingredients
Butter - 250 gms
Full eggs - 3
Castor sugar - 150 gms
All-purpose flour - 175 gms
Baking powder - 8gms
Soaked fruit mix in wine and rum - 500gms (preferably that has been soaked for 5 months)
Method
1. Cream the sugar and butter. Then add the eggs, fold in all the other ingredients.
2. Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
3. For the decoration use icing sugar, apricots, pecan, hazelnuts, dried blueberries, dried cherries.
Ritu Dalmia
founder and co-owner, Diva
“It is my personal favourite as my partner is German and she makes it every year on Christmas. After so many years, Christmas feels incomplete if we don’t have this salad (made by her mind you) on the table!”
GERMAN POTATO SALAD
Potatoes- 1 kg, peeled and sliced.
Salt, for boiling potatoes
Butter- 2 tbsp
All-purpose flour- 2 tbsp
Gherkin water (liquid from a jar of pickles) - 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Water (as needed to adjust consistency)
Cocktail onions- 1/2 cup (about 60 gms), chopped.
Gherkins -1/2 cup (about 60 gms), chopped.
Granulated sugar- 1 tbsp
Pommery mustard -1 tbsp
Fresh dill- 1 tbsp, chopped (plus extra for garnish)
Method
1. Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4-inch slices.
2. Boil the potato slices in salted water until fork tender. Drain and cool them down.
3. In a pan, make a roux by melting butter, then adding flour and cooking until it forms a smooth paste and cooked.
4. Gradually add gherkin water to the roux, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches a sauce-like consistency. Add water if needed to adjust thickness.
5. To the sauce, add chopped cocktail onions, chopped gherkins, salt, sugar, and Pommery mustard. Stir well to combine.
6. Add the sliced potatoes and chopped dill to the pan. Gently toss the potatoes in the flavourful sauce until well-coated.
7. Serve the German Potato Salad at room temperature, garnished with additional fresh dill.