Peek into the Christmas Kitchen of an East Indian

Rekaejao, boros and navries are some of the delicacies you’ll find in an East Indian’s kitchen this Christmas. The community refers to the original inhabitants of Bombay, Salsette and Thana, who have unique cultural traditions that have been passed down over generations.

While some of the Christmas delicacies the East Indians make are shared with Goans, Mangloreans and Syrian Christians,others are typical to this community. Many of their practices are a throwback to the times when Bombay and neighbouring regions were under Portuguese reign.

Today, they speak a unique dialect of Marathi. And one thing’s for sure, they take their Christmas culinary duties rather seriously. ‘Koswad’ is what they call the tradition of sharing sweets, and so enough has to be made to go around and be enjoyed till the end of the festive season.

Here are 10 East Indian Christmas delicacies that are guaranteed to trigger sweet cravings:

Kulkuls

These crunchy fried delicacies are made of flour, eggs, sugar and ghee or melted butter. The wavy ridge gives them an attractive appearance.

Check out the recipe here.

Navries

An East Indian version of the karanji, these are delicious goodies stuffed with cashew nuts, poppy seeds, raisins, semolina, cardamom and cinnamon powder.

Check out a karanji recipe here.

Thali sweet

These sweets are baked in thalis, thus earning them the name ‘thali sweet’. It is prepared in stages – part of the mixture is kept ready overnight and the remaining ingredients are added the morning after before baking.

Rekaejao

Rekaejao is probably the only Christmas dessert that is made of curd, along with almonds, fine sugar and beaten egg whites. It’s a kind of cake that is cooked on slow fire.

Boros

These biscuits are baked after mixing sooji, ground coconut, eggs and sugar and leaving them overnight. A little butter and rose essence gives the boros an enviable flavour.

Rose de coque

A kind of fried cookie, the key ingredient here is coconut milk. Maida, rice flour, sugar and eggs also go into the mixture. The rose cookie mold gives them their inimitable appearance.

Check out the recipe here.

Marzipan

A well-known treat, marzipan is traditionally made with sugar and almonds but the East Indians make it with cashew nuts instead. The sweet can then be coloured and shaped into desired molds.

Check out the recipe here.

Doughnut

Doughnuts need no introduction but for East Indians, it is an integral part of their Christmas traditions. The aroma of frying doughnuts when you walk into an East Indian home can be intoxicating.

Check out the recipe here.

Date roll

Copious amounts of dates and walnuts make these sweet and buttery rolls a lip-smacking treat to have during Christmas.

Snowballs

Don’t you just love making balls out of freshly fallen snow? Relive that feeling by indulging into these snow-white desserts made of maida, ghee, castor sugar, salt and cherries.

Find all the recipes to East Indian Christmas sweets here.