Normally, I am well-prepared for Christmas lunches where a battalion
of friends of family descend upon you and it is a time to experiment and
impress and this Christmas was no different.
So, I had an elaborate menu planned with the theme as ‘Homemade’ which looked as follows –
Starters: Spice-n-salt
potato canapes on fenugreek bread, Potato chips, Chicken cutlets
Main Course: Tapioca and
Fish curry, Multi-layered, multi-colored butter rice, Mutton Chukka, Potato
and Paneer chops curry
Accompaniments: Prawns
Pickle, Tomato raita
Dessert: Cake, Pudding and
Chocolates
Please do not attempt to do all this in one day. I started about 2
days ago i.e. on 23rd December 2015.
Day 1: Shopping for the
ingredients is easy if you have the list of items required for each dish and
need to be bought. So, I went to the local market to procure must-have item and
battled the crowds to successfully bring in all of them about 2 hours later.
Cleaning the fish, prawns, chicken and lamb took a better part of the
afternoon.
I started with the prawns pickle because the taste is better with a
bit of ageing. I have already provided the recipe in this blog - http://reenued.blogspot.in/2015/11/what-condiment-for-my-sea-food-guests.html
Guess what I did with the tamarind slice I pulled out of the pickle? I
put it into the fish curry which I made exactly as I have seen my Mom making.
When the fish was cooking, I started marinating the chicken and the
mutton for chicken cutlets and mutton chukka respectively.
After about an hour or so, the fish curry was cooling, and I prepared
the mutton chukka and chicken cutlets in parallel. By the time I was done, I
was pleased with the result but I was so bone-tired that I decided to put up my
apron for the day.
Day 2: Baking Day is what I like to call this since all I did was bake
– starting with the cake, pudding and ending with bread and chocolates.
Christmas Day: I went for mass and by this time, the tapioca that I
had cut the previous night and frozen had completely defrosted. To start with I
made the tapioca and put the potatoes to boil for the topping on the fenugreek
bread. Then the multi-layered, multi-coloured butter rice which surprisingly
took me a lot of time to prepare, layer and then cook in ‘dum’ (steam) mode.
The time was already 12 and I was wondering how I was going to make the
potato and paneer chops curry and the remaining items – Canapes, potato chips,
chicken cutlets and Tomato raita.
It may have been good organizing or time-capsuling but somehow I was
ready by 1:30 p.m. to serve out the starters and the main course was being
warmed up.
When the lunch was spread out, it seemed like quite a lot and my
guests wondered whether they would be able to justice to all the dishes. They
spent the next four hours sampling, taking breaks and then sampling again till
the net result was that the only leftover that I had was a plate-full of rice.
My nephews suggested that I should undertake the MasterChef challenge; so
pleased were they with the appeal of their senses.
I was literally preening like a peacock hearing all these compliments
and that euphoria continued through the day till I went to sleep.
& I realized how every pore of my body was aching. I called my
friend and told… literally ordered her to cook all my meals for the next two
days. She was happy to oblige thankfully since she was still in the throes of
my X’mas special dishes. Good for me!
No Pain no gain! So, if you want to really plan something spectacular but are dithering because of the effort, take that leap... Totally worth it!
Watch this blog for the various recipes and tips.
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