Tastes like Christmas – The Hindu

Where rose cookies bloom

Soft white appam surrounded by lacy, browned crisp edges, and stew are the staples for a typical Christmas breakfast in Kerala, together with wealthy plum cake and home made wine.

However, relying on the area and the church one belongs to, breakfast, brunch and lunch fluctuate broadly from appam and duck curry or stew in Kuttanad and Kottayam to a seafood fiesta in Kollam.

Renu Philip says that within the previous days, a cook dinner used to remain at her husband’s ancestral dwelling in Kottayam to organize meals for the prolonged household. Chicken roast or duck roast was a should together with a variety of meats.

Jaikumari Rajenesh serves steaming sizzling puttu, pork cooked within the Mavadi model and plum cake, a typical breakfast staple on the day of Christmas in lots of properties in Nagercoil  
| Photo Credit:
Jaikumari Rajenesh

Veteran plantation homeowners of their eighties and nineties keep in mind the sport meat that was once a speciality throughout the season: when venison, wild boar and extra had been roasted and curried.

“My late mother, Annie Mathappan, used to make several ethnic dishes for the festival; snacks such as cheepappam, rose cookies, kul kul, cakes and homemade wine ” recollects Jessie Ignatius, a resident of Kollam.

Towards the South, particularly amongst households with roots in Kanyakumari, which was as soon as part of erstwhile Travancore, breakfast is incomplete with out pork and puttu. “After church, we have breakfast at my mother’s place in Nagercoil, and then we go visiting our relatives. The pork, cooked with roasted masala and tamarind, is almost a shade of ebony. We can’t have enough of it,” says inside decorator Jaikumari Rajenesh. Another season particular is orappan, which is cooked with rice flour, coconut milk and jaggery. After it’s cooked right into a halwa, it’s baked for a crust on the highest, explains Jaikumari.

Pork cooked within the Mavadi model and puttu is a well-liked breakfast on the day of Christmas in lots of locations in Nagercoil
 
| Photo Credit:
Jaikumari Rajenesh

In Thrissur, no celebration is full with out pork cooked with Chinese potatoes and served with appam, rice and every little thing else.

In Puthenthope, a fishing village in Thiruvananthapuram, households head straight to the seashore after midnight mass. The revelry on the seashore consists of video games and music. Many of them head to the ocean at dawn with packed meals to eat on the boat.

Dining with the choir

(Clockwise) Pork innards, chutney, bitter orange, rice, rice porridge,palm nut, smoked pork with Axone (fermented soyabean) and pork in bamboo shoot includes a typical feast in Dimapur, Nagaland  
| Photo Credit:
Lidang

At the Manipur Evangelical Lutheran Church within the village of Singngat, Manipur, to which Langchinthang Taithul, a member of the Zou tribe, belongs to, Christmas is a interval of music, worship and group. “At around 10 am on Christmas Day, all of us go to church. After prayers, we assemble outside the church for tea and sing together. Meanwhile, a select group of men and women would be busy cooking and arranging the dinner for that evening. By 3 pm, everyone is called to the church by ringing the bell, and all of us (about 300 to 350) would have dinner together in the church compound,” he says.

No feast is full with out pork and sticky rice, and often there are completely different sorts of beef and fish dishes. “Mepoh is a pork dish that is flavoured with shijou, which is gathered from the jungles; banana stem is curried. We have many herbs, roots and leaves that are used in our cooking. Paaknam is a spicy pancake made of besan, vegetables, and dried, fermented fish wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed,” he explains. By 6 pm, the Christmas choir and worship begins, and round 8 pm, most households go dwelling to proceed the celebrations whereas some would possibly stay, cracking jokes and having fun with the banter.

A typical Naga feast on Christmas Day in Dimapur, Nagaland  
| Photo Credit:
Thsope Medo

Meziwang Zeliang, a member of the Zeliang tribe in Nagaland, says group feasts are a standard function of church buildings within the North-east. “Volunteers are selected from among the men and women to do the cooking and chopping for the feast, which is invariably different kinds of pork dishes such as pork innards, smoked pork with axone (fermented soyabean) and pork in bamboo, rice, chutney made of fermented mustard leaves and endless cups of Phika cha (black tea). “Dessert is usually fresh fruits; cakes and wine are not part of traditional feasts though many are adapting it now into the Christmas day celebrations,” she explains.

At her church, Zeliangrong Baptist Church in Dimapur, the feast is after the morning service. After the feast, most of them keep on as there are music competitions, stand-up comedy and different leisure. “We go home after the evening service and then go to meet relatives,” she provides.

A Portuguese thali

East Indian Catholics are natives of Mumbai, Palghar and Thane. The group has a Portuguese affect, and so their delicacies overlaps with that of Catholics from Goa and Mangaluru. “But there are a few dishes that are unique to the East Indian community. For instance, only East Indians make thali sweets, a white cake that gets its name because it is baked in a tray. “Made from coconut, semolina, egg whites and ground almonds or cashews, this Christmas treat is also made during traditional East Indian weddings,” says Vellani Sequeria, a baker primarily based in Mumbai’s western suburb, Vasai.

Christmas Day is a busy time for Valeni as she makes an elaborate lunch that consists of roast rooster filled with cooked greens, vindaloo and sarapatel — two dishes that they share with the Goan Catholics. Mutton stew is eaten with fugias, a deep-fried bread that’s barely candy and particular to the group.

“Another must at the Christmas spread is the duck moilee. Traditionally, Moilee is made with duck meat but nowadays people prefer chicken as it is easily available and easier to cook. The most important ingredient for this dish is bottle masala, which is found only in the kitchens of East Indians. It is made with over 30 to 32 ingredients that include red chillies, poppy seeds and a range of whole spices,” Vellani provides. The day ends with a glass of khimad, a spiced liquor whose base is a concoction made with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, turmeric powder and tea powder, all boiled in water.

Armenian wooden-fired desserts

For Christmas eve, there are all types of meats and roasts on the dwelling of Brunnel Arathoon and Anthony Khatchaturian in Kolkata. Once the household returns from midnight mass, they get collectively for a brunch that will even have loads of leftovers from the earlier night’s dinner. “We make sandwiches with the different roasts. There are cakes, homemade wines and a must is a pie made with minced beef,” says Brunnel, a effectively-recognized dwelling chef in Kolkata. While the Armenian Christians, one of many oldest denominations in India, have a good time Christmas on December 25, the official celebrations occur on January 6 on the Church of Holy Nazareth in Armenian Street.

Brunnel Arathoon’s Armenian desserts bakes on wooden-fired stoves and seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg have consumers from throughout India. Unlike plum desserts, these desserts no fruits  
| Photo Credit:
Anthony Khatchaturian

“Then I cook the Armenian dishes that have been passed on to me by my mother and grandmother. Rice pilaf, harrissa and dolmades are made then,” says Brunnel. Anthony remarks that the Armenian desserts that she makes in wooden-fired ovens, that are made with none fruits, are a lot in demand throughout India. “They are seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg,” he provides.

Heirloom recipes

“If you were to drop in at an Anglo-Indian home during Christmas, chances are that you would be served homemade Old Temperance (OT),” says Chennai-based Harry MacLure, editor of the journal Anglos within the Wind. OT, he explains, is an alcohol-free, ginger-primarily based drink that was once made in most Anglo-Indian properties with hand-medown recipes.

A classic snap of Christmas celebrations of the Anglo-Indian group in Chennai
 
| Photo Credit:
Anglos In The Wind

“However, you are free to have something stronger or wine but OT used to be standard fare in most homes along with plum cake and seed cake, which was flavoured with aniseed. In addition, there would be kul kuls, rose cookies and Dhol-Dhol, a halwa-like sweet made of puttu rice powder, coconut, jaggery, ghee. It used to be made on firewood stoves outside the house,” he says, including, “It was a Portuguese favourite that has been adapted by Anglo-Indians and is a Christmas favourite.”

The Anglo-Indians often attend midnight mass and like to have a late brunch on December 25, consisting of eggs, bacon, sausages, ham, salami, breads, cheese and so forth. So lunch is often after 3 pm when households and mates get collectively for a leisurely feast with a number of sorts of meat roasts and pies. “We used to have coconut rice, ball curry (made of minced meat), devil’s chutney, pork vindaloo, sweets, cakes and roasted chicken,” he recollects. He remembers that turkey roast and duck roast had been widespread when he was rising up within the Railway Colony in Tiruchi, however these days it has been changed by rooster as turkey is tougher to cook dinner and wanted quite a lot of house. “Lunch was a grand affair with friends from all communities and families gathering together. This time, the gatherings might be smaller but the spirit of Christmas will be the same,” he asserts.

(With inputs from Aishwarya Upadhye)