Christmas spirit

#atmytable Our table turned out really nice this year! So unplanned, really!

We celebrate Christmas a home and despite my best attentions, I am way out of my league where my Mother-in-law and other relatives are concerned. I’m just never that organised or ready for Christmas.

I don’t dunk my Christmas cake fruit in brandy each September.

I don’t have a menu planned or a guest list because we stopped having a large celebration at home. Once we were officially married, we did the big lunch at my husband’s family home. It takes a whole day to recover from the excesses of that and I don’t want to be cooking and entertaining after a very delicious, leisurely lunch!

I don’t make my roast ham anymore. And we haven’t had a huge Christmas party in a long time.

This year we had an Open House on Boxing Day, 26 th December. Trying to keep things simple so that we would have plenty of time to spend with our guests, we decided on nibbles and cocktails, with no dinner.

The menu was easy and fun:

Lots of dip and chips! My legendary cheese dip with mushrooms, a beetroot hummous and a regular hummous. Chips were potato wafers from the one and only Budhani Wafers.

My Chicken Liver Pate, extra special with my dear friend Brendan Barr’s secret ingredients taking it’s velvet factor even higher up. We served the pate with some excellent crackers.

Marinated olives, a little trick I picked up in Italy. These are always a party favourite.

Tandoori Paneer, vegetarian classic of chunks of cream cheese marinaded in spicy red paste and sauteed in a large frying pan. I made this in small batches so they would remain piping hot and not turn into rubber.

Chicken Sheekh kababs, readymade from Zorabian Chicken, and always a huge favourite in our home.

Mint and curd dip to drizzle on the kababs.

Finger sandwiches: Mom makes delicious sandwiches that are moist and bursting with flavour. She made several fillings, a lovely mixture of herbs and grated cheese, another with coconut and mint chutney with and without cheese, and a lovely chicken mayo. The trick is in keeping the sandwich bread moist at all times so it doesn’t dry out in this weather. The chicken should never be boiled to cardboard but should just succulent.

A large platter of sliced gherkins and salami for the non-vegetarians.

We made loads of cute Gingerbread cookies this Christmas. They turned out really squidgy and on par with Liebkuchen, as vouched for by my many Austrian friends. Icing them was tricky and fun, but they looked so cute and tasted perfect- spicy ginger with a twist of sugar.

Christmas Cake: my mother has always made her Christmas cake each year. It’s our one main family tradition. Normally we throw a little tree party with the kids dressing the tree as we mix the cake. We have a recipe that doesn’t need months of soaking but works like a charm and so far, the current cake is a hit! It is more golden than brown, and I ice it with marzipan and toast it briefly in the oven, giving it an edge that I adore.

Christmas Kusvaar: our Mangalorean origins dictate we have little Xmas treats on hand to serve all our guests. This custom of offering many different home-made candies and savouries is observed by most Catholic communities in India, and there are entire books detailing the intiricacies of candy making.

Normally the family makes them weeks ahead. Mom is filled with stories from her childhood in Mangalore, where the women gathered together, shaping and rolling little balls of wheat and semolina dough to make golden friend kulkuls, deep fried pastries dusted with icing sugar.

There are so many kinds of nibbles on offer and this is when you dust off your crystal candy tray with its many sections and pile it with little moulded marzipan sweets, yellow and red jujubes, coconut filled çrescent- shaped and deep-fried ‘neuris,’ pink and white and green coconut ice, glistening ruby squares of sticky guava cheese, shell-shaped milk toffees and icy peppermint creams; fresh Portuguese-inspired coconut cake baatika, spicy squiggly chaklis, and my favourite gooliyos. I have very fond memories of gooliyos, tiny, dry roasted balls of rice flour and jaggery. They are hard and unyielding and totally my kind of jaw-breaker! We also have the beautiful Rosa Cookies, flat, deep fried rose -patterned discs. They are crunchy and sweet and very, very addictive. This year, our Kusvaar came all the way from Mangalore, a gift from my incredibly sweet and amazing Sister-in-law, Sharon.

The Mulled wine was a huge hit and we glugged a LOT of it! Making it was really fun too, and the best part of the evening. The entire house was so fragrant and it smelled exactly, perfectly as Christmas should! I used my Ceylonese cinnamon, lots of orange and local lemons.

There was plenty of vodka, rum, single malt, gin and Pimm’s flowing at the bar. Bira too!

We didn’t serve dinner and it was rather a pity as the party went on till one am!!! There was live music, and singing and a lot of friends. It was so good to welcome so many beloved faces, and catch up once before the year ends. There were dogs and children and presents, more cake and lots of chocolate!

A very merry Christmas indeed!