Christmas 2021: Craving festive treats? Three city chefs share their favourite simple recipes

Representative Image. Pic/iStock

The festive season is all about delicious food and while it may be daunting to cook a full feast, Christmas is also about the delicious sweets that are shared with friends, family and neighbours. Craving a delicious plum cake, kulkuls, guava cheese, milk cream, navries, rose cookies or even the chewy marzipans is a highlight of the celebrations.

At such times, Catholic friends often come to the rescue, armed with platters filled with these delicacies. But for those who are away from loved ones or want to savour such seasonal delights round the year, learning how to make some of them is a great idea.

Mid-day.com asked city chefs to share relatively simple recipes of Christmas delicacies that are made in their own homes. These include not only sweets but also popular savoury specialities that are made by the community during the festival.

Milk Cream by Chef Paul Kinny, St Regis Mumbai, Lower Parel

One of the many popular treats eaten during Christmas celebrations, milk cream is a bite-sized sweet made with powdered cashew and milk. Pic/St. regis

Ingredients (Makes 500 gms):
Milk - 1 litre, cashew nuts (broken) - 200 gms, icing sugar - 200 gms, vanilla essence - 1 tsp, butter - 20 gms

Method:
1. Boil the milk and allow it to reduce on a slow flame for about 1 hour. Keep stirring constantly.
2. Powder the broken cashew nuts in a mixer and ensure there are no lumps.
3. Add sugar, powdered cashew nuts, vanilla essence and butter to the simmering milk.
4. Keep stirring till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
5. Remove the mixture in a tray and cool.
6. Put the mixture in rubber moulds to give desired shapes.
7. Remove from the moulds, cool and dry the milk cream.

Kulkul by Chef Juliano Rodrigues, Out of the Blue, Khar West

Just like milk cream, date rolls and rose cookies, the crispy deep-fried kulkuls are hard to miss during the festive season. The Goan pastry, often dusted with powdered sugar, is a crowd-favourite because of its simple flavours.

Ingredients
Refined flour - 1 cup, semolina - 1/4 cup, milk - 4 tbsp, salt - 1 tsp, ghee - 1 tbsp, powder sugar - 4 tbsp, oil (for frying) - 500 ml, icing sugar (for dusting) - 1 tbsp, comb to make the shape.

Method:
1. In a steel bowl, add all ingredients except icing sugar and make a stiff dough and rest it for 1 hour.
2. Divide the dough into small marble-shaped dough balls.
3. Heat the oil.
4. Oil the comb and press the small dough and turn it back to let it form into a curled pastry.
5. Deep fry the kulkul in oil, remove and allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar.
6. The kulkuls can be eaten and stored for a maximum of 30 days, if stored in an air-tight container.

Traditional East Indian fugias by Chef Freny Fernandes, Monèr - Bistro & Dessert bar

While the sweets more often than not try to steal the show every Christmas, fugias are an important part of the savoury feast in the East Indian community. The deep-fried fermented bread is mostly eaten with sorpotel and other meat dishes. Pic/Monèr - Bistro & Dessert bar

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 kg, eggs - 2 nos, sugar - 2 tbsp, salt - to taste, coconut milk - 1 cup, yeast - 7 gms, oil (hot) - 1-2 tbsp, oil to fry - as needed.

Method:
1. Put all the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl.
2. Add the eggs, coconut milk and oil and mix until it forms a smooth dough in about 7-10 minutes.
3. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it proof overnight.
4. In a deep fry pan, heat the oil for frying.
5. Put around one tablespoon of dough at a time and cook until golden.
6. Serve hot.

Also Read: Around the globe for Christmas