It’s crunch time

Like all Indian festivals,Christmas is a convivial affair. All celebrations happen around platefuls of food – cakes,meats and a wide variety of sweet and salty snacks. Feverish preparations begin a week before the dawn of X’mas; the kitchens flood with bags of flour,sugar,eggs,jaggery and more ingredients. And the most fun part of it all is cooking together as family. A snacky Christmas is the best one of all indeed!

Chinchwad resident Rozanna Rodricks has been a teacher for the past 30 years and every Christmas,some of her students descend to her house for a jolly lunch. For this year’s meal,she has been spending many evening hours cooking up some wonderful Goan Christmas delicacies. On her menu are mouth-watering Kalkals,Cheeselings,Angel’s Rings,Walnut Drops,Rum Cake and Coconut sweets. “The snacks are mostly all sweet,but each time I keep notes and try to innovate. I often add a bit of pepper,chilli or cooking cheese in the flour to make the dishes a little pungent,” she says.

Camp-resident Sylvia D’souza’s Christmas party will be livened up by happy servings of Rich Plum Cake,Walnut and Chocolate Fudge,Rose Cookies,Channa Doss,Dodol,Marzipan,Chaklis and Karanjis. “We order many snacks from Goa too,” she says. But one classic Goan sweet that has been made at home this year is the Guava Cheese.