A full-filling Christmas table

Rahul Verma

I had been chuckling over the word ‘stollen’ for a while — the humour sparked by a joke that had just won a contest run by a British comedy channel. Contestants were asked to send in their entries for the best ‘Christmas Cracker’. And I loved this year’s winning entry: Did you hear about the Christmas cake on display in the British Museum? It was Stollen.

And then, as it often happens, while I was thinking of rich stollens (or stolen riches!), I received a recipe for the cake from a well-known pastry chef. For a moment, I forgot about the Kohinoor, and focused on the cake — which is what you’d like to dig into for Christmas. The dish calls for a lot of butter and sugar, but I think the festive season has to be marked with some kind of a rich cake — with orange zest, raisins, and rum, if possible.

Our festivals are all unadulterated odes to sweets — from the crisp gujiyas of Holi and soft laddoos of Diwali to the ghee-laden halwa or kheer of harvest festivals. Christmas, likewise, is mostly about puddings and cakes. But while desserts are often the centrepieces of X-mas meals, ham, turkey and other meats and savouries occupy the high table, too.

A lovely aspect of our Christmas food is that while a lot of dishes — plum puddings, for instance — are more or less uniform across the country, the regions have their X-mas specialities, too. There is a lot in common in the menus of Christian communities in Kerala, Goa, Bengal, the Northeast and elsewhere, but the regions have quite a few local preferences. And across regions, pork is the most favoured food.

Kerala revels in its pork roast — cooked with ginger, garlic, chillies, shallots, peppercorn, cloves and cardamom — and spicy minced beef cutlets. Goa’s vindaloo — always loved — is a Christmas special, as is pork roasted with masalas and a dash of palm vinegar. The Khasi community loves its pork with sesame seeds, and the Mizo people, their pork and mustard leaves.

Pork has quite an important role to play in Bengal as well. Bengal’s Christian food, of course, has been influenced by a succession of Christian rulers — from the Danes, Dutch and French to the Portuguese and the British. Many of the favourite X-mas dishes also take on local flavours. My friend Pradip Rozario is a very innovative chef in Kolkata. He has always celebrated Christmas with dishes that pay homage to regional demands. He lists among his favourite dishes such as bhuni or sausage bhaja (sausages fried in mustard oil with onions) and ham paturi.

For the paturi, he takes four thick pieces of ham, four mustard leaves, half a cup of coriander leaves (with the stems discarded), five green chillies, a sprig of fresh rosemary, four tablespoons mustard oil, one tablespoon of mustard paste, half a cup of grated coconut and one tablespoon of sugar. He washes the leaves, chillies and rosemary, grinds them with the oil, coconut, mustard paste and sugar. He marinades the ham with this mix, and keeps them aside for 30 minutes. Then, he takes four banana leaves, and wraps each ham in one, securing it with some string. The leaf parcels are placed in a double boiler or a steamer and steamed for 10 minutes. He serves this for Christmas with garlic toast, a burger or pao bun or steamed rice. I am looking forward to a ham-filled table this Christmas. Along with, of course, some stollen moments.

STOLLEN BREAD

Ingredients

For the starter dough

Flour 100 g

Yeast 3 g

Milk 100 ml

For the final dough

Milk 50 ml

Salt 3 g

Castor sugar 50 g

All spice powder 4 g

Butter 175 g

Flour 330 g

Raisins 150 g

Orange peel 50 g

Peeled almonds 50 g

Rum 50 ml

Marzipan 300 g

To finish

Ghee 200 g

Icing sugar 200 g

Method

Make the starter dough by mixing milk, yeast and flour. Keep it aside for an hour. Make the final dough with the starter dough, milk, salt, castor sugar, all-spice powder and flour. Add butter. Combine with rum, orange peel, raisins and chopped almonds. Cover the dough and let it rise until puffy — about 60-90 minutes. To make the filling, divide the marzipan into four pieces and shape each into a flattened log. Divide the dough into four oval pieces. Place a piece of marzipan down the longer centre of each oval, and fold the dough over it lengthwise. Press the top edge firmly to seal it to the dough below. Place them on a lightly greased baking tray. Cover them, and keep aside for 45-60 minutes. The dough will become puffy. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C. Bake the stollen for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Remove the stollen from the oven, and brush with melted ghee. After five minutes, dust with icing sugar. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Serve sliced and cold.

Recipe courtesy: Chef Shashi Bhuvan Gopal, Executive Pastry Chef at The Leela, Gurugram