Feasting in festive season

Pushpesh pant

Can one imagine a festival without a feast? Special foods lovingly prepared for family and friends are an integral part of any joyous celebration. Gujiya and thandai are as much a part of Holi as abeer and gulal, singing and frolicking. The holy month of Ramzan that leads up to Eid combines fasting and feasting in almost equal measure. After a day-long fast comes iftar and the spread of myriad kebabs, qorma, pulav and biryani is relished till sehri. Contrary to popular belief, not all the dishes are meaty. There are lip-smacking vegetarian chaats, sevian, halwa, and phirni that provide an opportunity to showcase rare family heirloom recipes. Navratri is the run-up to Dasehra/Vijayadasmi. In Bengal and on the eastern seaboard, this is Pujo. It is not that every day is marked for fasting or satvik vegetarian food. Truth be told, this is the season for big-time bingeing, splurging on street foods in colourfully decorated pandals. There are stalls that serve delectable cutlets, chops, kathi rolls, bhuni khichudi and fish fry. Diwali is associated with kheer and malpua and deep-fried sweets that have a long shelf life. Christmas and New Year are the time to enjoy to your heart’s content the rich plum puddings, cakes and mince pies, roasts and assorted preserves. Just after the Magh mela and Makar Sankranti/Ugadi festivities are over, it is once again time to welcome the spring with Holi.

Let us not forget that so far we have only touched the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of regional festivals that have special foods — Onam, Pongal, Bihu, Gangauur, Teej. One interesting trend that is discernible is that young Indians are not shy of having an eclectic festive menu that incorporates delicacies from different regions and festivals at home. The evolution of pan-Indian taste can, perhaps, be explained best in terms of young Indians migrating across the length and breadth of the country following the imperatives of education and employment. They have acquired many a taste that were alien at home.

Another equally powerful driving force is the growing health consciousness among young professionals leading a hectic lifestyle. Gone are the days of working hard and playing hard. Worries about burnout, heart diseases and hypertension have made deep-fried foods and red meats a taboo. Refined sugar, salt and ultra-processed foods are also avoided. Conscious choices are made to have meals that are healthy, nourishing and satisfying. Festive foods are mixed and matched accordingly. This is not to say that there is a tsunami-like wave of millets and vegan substitutes that threaten to drown the festive spirit.

Creative chefs and imaginative home cooks have almost perfected the art of recreating traditional festive delicacies. Grilling, baking, roasting and air-frying have replaced deep frying. Also eschewed are artificial colours and flavours. Natural unrefined sweeteners and savouring agents have come back in vogue. People are discovering that boiling and steaming help retain natural colours and flavours of the ingredients used.

No one needs to make any compromise on taste, eye appeal or satiation while setting the table for a festive feast. Take, for instance, the lighter than air soufflé-like phirni. It is commonly prepared with powdered rice but can be equally delightful when grated makhana (foxnut) replaces the coarsely ground rice. The phirni can also be fruit-based as per the season. Nishant Choubey, our chef friend from Jharkhand, is deeply committed to trans-regional fusion. He likes to prepare a gravy that is reduced Chettinad rasam to go with paani phal (water chestnut) qorma. Kathal ki biryani is common case. But minced kathal kofta in a chilka potli packed in banana or turmeric leaf is something else, aromatic flavourful and unique. Blissfully, one doesn’t have to undertake backbreaking chores to prepare an elaborate festive dish. Many of the ingredients, without added preservatives, are available off the shelf like coconut cream, palm jaggery, molasses, wanton seeds and organic produce. Remember, a thin trickle of honey or molasses goes a long way. Nor is it necessary to become a vegetarian with a vengeance. Heavens are not going to fall if you treat yourself and your guest to a homemade kasundi-based paturi (leaves cooked in mustard paste) or a slice of roast duck with plum sauce. A thick broth with a few momos enriching it becomes an exotic one-dish meal. Chatkare wale aloo transforms aloo-kachalu ki chaat to something sensational when paired with baked banana chips from Kerala. There is no dearth of healthy (maybe even eggless) cakes, puddings and custards. Fresh or dried, fruit compotes can uplift even a vegan caramel custard to sublime heights. Many of these natural food preserves can be bought and employed to create healthy festive desserts like khubani ka meetha with hung yoghurt and shrikhand filled in baked gujiya.

Beverages present a different challenge. There are some partygoers whose merry-making is restricted to gulping one alcoholic drink after another. We feel that such behaviour results from denial and deprivation in growing-up years and enforced prohibition. In olden times, alcoholic drinks were a minor part of the celebrations. As a matter of fact, the famous punch was a carefully created concoction that ‘mixed’ drinks essentially reducing its potency. The word punch drives from the Sanskrit word panch, that translates as five. Rum or whisky were diluted with tea, wines, cider, etc. The same treatment was given to hot toddy. We may thank our stars that hard drinks are reluctantly exiting from the festive party scene. Long, tall drinks that one can linger over are becoming popular. Mocktails with zilch alcohol are fashionable. Mixing drinks provides an opportunity to the host to show off his bar and skills as a mixologist. If you wish to play games that are endlessly amusing, you can try pairing teas with what you are serving or regale your guest with coffees, Indian and foreign, with the elaborate ritual of a filter or French press.

For us, nothing matches the spell cast by a Kashmiri kahwa redolent of saffron, cardamom with slivers of almond. If you have a small samovar that can be displayed, there is nothing like it! 

Chatkare wale Aloo

Ingredients

Potatoes 400 g

Poppy seeds 2 tbsp

Ajwain seeds 2 tbsp

Coriander leaves 1/4 cup

Green chillies (chopped) 2 tbsp

Coriander powder 1 tsp

Cumin powder 1 tsp

Pomegranate seeds 2 tsp

Oil 1 tbsp

Salt To taste

Method

Boil and peel the potatoes. Chop in large chunks. Soak poppyseeds and ajwain seeds in water for 15 minutes, then grind to a coarse paste with coriander leaves and green chillies. Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry the ground spice paste. Add the dry spice powders, along with salt and pomegranate seeds. Stir-fry on low medium flame for about a minute and a half, and then put in the potatoes. Mix gently to coat with spices. Add sliced coconut and plantain chips just before serving. If a hotter snack is desired, you may add a pinch of freshly ground peppercorns, dried ginger powder and chilli flakes.