Of family and festive times

Susanna Myrtle Lazarus delves into various Christmas food traditions and memories

December 18, 2014 05:51 pm | Updated December 19, 2014 10:36 am IST

Elaborate preparations: blancmange pudding. Photo: special arrangement

Elaborate preparations: blancmange pudding. Photo: special arrangement

Christmas mornings were spent in paati’s house, where my cousins and I would wake up to the delicious smells wafting from her kitchen. Steaming idlis, crispy medhu vadais and piping hot chicken or mutton curry would wait on the table as she hovered over a huge kadai, stirring up a batch of rava kesari. After a quick prayer, during which we would keep opening our eyes to stare longingly at the food, we would tuck into the South Indian feast.

That was the beginning to a day well spent filling up on delicious sweets and crunchy savouries. Lunch was also a hearty affair, usually with biryani, but sometimes we would also have duck, turkey or quail. By dinner, we were usually too full for anything else.

A lot has changed over the years, but many families in various communities, like mine, continue to have Christmas food traditions that have remained constant.

Anglo Indian households are known for their vivacious celebrations and Merlin Smith Thomas recalls the frenzied preparations that would take place leading up to Christmas. “As children, my 11 siblings and I would only be allowed to stir the cake batter and help make the kalkal (a fried pastry made with flour, eggs and coconut milk). The doldol or black halwa, made of coconut and rice flour, was my mum’s bastion,” says the 69-year-old, who has authored a cookbook of Anglo-Indian dishes set to release later this month.

Breakfast was, and still remains, continental, with sausages and bacon; coconut rice was served with a meat stew or curry for lunch. “Biryani was never made in Anglo Indian houses; it was only around the 1960s that it started becoming popular,” says Merlin.

Dinner would be roast duck or turkey. “There were many side dishes to accompany it. One of our favourites was the stuffing, made of the giblets or chicken/beef mince with bread. Dessert would be a blancmange pudding set in a tub of water as we had no refrigerator back then,” she says.

While the preparations might not be so elaborate now, Merlin will still be making some of the traditional dishes for her three young granddaughters this year. On how celebrations have become more inclusive of kids, she says, “At their age, we would be served dinner first and sent out of the room so the adults could talk freely. We were allowed back in for music and dancing accompanied by cake and wine.”

On chilly Christmas Eves in Coorg, Smitha Kuttayya Boppanda remembers being bundled off to midnight mass and the delicious meals that followed through the day. The Kodava food expert says, “Everyone knows and loves our cuisine, but for those from the region, it’s the season to indulge in wines. Being a farming community, we don’t like to waste anything. So any excess fruit became wine. This year, I made passion fruit, pineapple, betel leaf (paan), ginger and banana wines at home. One of my friends back in Coorg says that her mother has made coffee berry wine out of fresh coffee berries. It sounds divine!”

While grape wine is what is common, in Coorg, it is the other way around. “We don’t grow grapes, and so it is more expensive for a household to make grape wine and so that is a delicacy for us,” says Smitha.

Being away from Kerala has not changed anything food-wise for Sally Mathew, who runs a catering business, with her partner Beena Oommen. “Christmas breakfast is always lace-like palappam with stew. Lunch includes at least one type of cutlet — either fish or beef. Then there is fried rice or neichoru with side dishes like kozhi varattiyathu, or some type of gravy. There are vegetarian dishes too, but for the festival, we all love to have different types of meat,” she says.  For dessert, cakes or puddings are the norm. Sally also says that biryani was never on the menu in Malayali households. “With everyone having such busy lives, it is difficult to prepare some of the traditional dishes, which are labour intensive and that’s  why many settle for ordering, especially if there is a big gathering,” she says.

As author Caroline Kennedy puts it, “Christmas can feel like a lot of work... But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories.” And it looks like that’s exactly what a lot of families have been doing over the years.

Here’s to a merry Christmas, everyone!

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