A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL COOK-UP

Christmas is indeed a time for merriment and what better way to enjoy it than to indulge in delicious, traditional Christmas delights. However, this festive season I decided to not only gobble Christmas sweets but also learn their method of preparation. Thus, the Holly Jolly East Indian Christmas cook-up held by India Food Network and Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal's APB Cook studio at Craft Deli.Bistro.Bar, Mumbai proved the perfect opportunity to do so.

​The affable duo of Chef Paul Kinny & his beautiful wife Smita Kinny as well as Chef Tanai Shirali educated attendees about popular Christmas delicacies and also shared accounts around these treats. This was the first time Mrs. & Mr. Kinny were cooking together and it was an absolute pleasure to watch them churn out lip-smacking Christmas goodies like guava cheese, marzipan and milk cream. ​

(L-R) CHEF PAUL KINNY, RUSHINA MUNSHAW GHILDIYAL, SMITA KINNY

GUAVA CHEESE

While Mrs. Kinny did most of the cooking since crafting these sweets is her forte, Chef Kinny weaved Christmas stories around them.He apprised us about origins of East Indian Catholics, the community's world famous Bottle Masala made from nothing less than 30-40 ingredients and how it is different from the Goan Cafreal masala and also the tradition of receiving 'khuswar' where kids would run up to houses in the neighbourhood post the Christmas mass to collect tasty, traditional sweets from elders.

MARZIPAN

MILK CREAM

Immersing ourselves into these anecdotes we learnt three, traditional Christmas sweets delights as under:

• MARZIPAN

This was a blend of powdered nuts like almonds/cashewnuts with sugar and egg white that can be moulded into any shape that warms your heart. While traditionally almond meal was the core ingredient of choice, today powdered cashewnuts or a mixture of both is used. But, Chef Kinny clearly pointed out to refrain from using any other kind of nuts to prepare marzipan as any other kind of nut would have a shorter shelf life, turn rancid quickly and ruin the taste of marzipan. Also, Mrs. Kinny laid emphasis on using organic/natural coloring agents to color marzipan while it is still warm and then transfer to moulds to get desired shapes and sizes.

• GUAVA CHEESE

I have been inquisitive to know more about the delectable guava cheese and this cook-up finally put my curiosity to rest. Guava pulp sans the seeds was mixed with sugar, corn starch and cooked until it achieved sufficient thick consistency and left the sides of the pan. At this stage pink color was added to mimick the hue of pink guava. The mixture was then spread on baking sheet, the knife was run through it to achieve the required shape and then it was allowed to cool to yield guava cheese. I did a bit of digging on the internet and found that originally the recipe entailed use of quinces and was called marmelada or quince cheese and was a popular fruit jelly in Portugal and its neighbouring countries as well as nations in South America. The Portuguese who arrived to the Indian shores in the 15th century replaced quinces easily with guava in the recipe and the dish thus prepared got its name as guava cheese. The Goans call this preparation perad derived from the Konkani word pera for guava.

• MILK CREAM

As the name suggests this was a milk-based sweet and arrived at through a patient milk reduction procedure where the doughy textured mixture can was set into moulds and demoulded on cooling.

Mrs. Kinny also mentioned that the shelf life of the sweets made for Christmas is about a week, just enough to last until the New Year celebrations. Also during this period, the aforementioned sweets should NOT be refrigerated or stored in air tight containers.

MULLED WINE SANGRIA

EGGNOG

KULKULS

While sweets are an integral part of Christmas celebration, beverages too are vital to Christmas festivities. So, Chef Tanai Shirali showcased two, much-loved Christmas concoctions - EGGNOG and MULLED WINE albeit with his own inventive twists to both recipes.

• Rather than merely teaching us how to make mulled wine (or red wine spiced up using cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, bay leaves, citrus zest and slow-cooked), he went ahead and taught us to try-out a sangria with it. The mulled wine was spiked with pineapple, orange juices and dehydrated chunks of apple and orange to create an alluring sangria.
• The customary Eggnog, a popular Christmas drink throughout United States of America and Canada was stirred up using egg yolks, sugar, cream and an offbeat addition of spiced rum as the alcohol element. A sprinkling of cinnamon completed this celebratory drink.​​

The cook-up concluded with all participants receiving goodie bags complete with scrumptious Christmas sweets prepared during the cook-up as well as a surprise addition of kulkuls - a crispy fried treat of flour, sugar and eggs with the appearance of ridged seashells.


It was indeed a fun, informative cook-up and I had a wonderful time learning and tasting Christmas specialities.
Till then, HAPPY EATING...

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