5 Must-make Christmas treats

5 Must-make Christmas treats (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

Church-going may not be a ritual with most on December 25th, but not many compromise on the gourmet side of it.

Christmas is supposed to be one big party where unlike New Year's, the emphasis is on good, preferably exotic, food, a few sips of wine, and a lot of steaks, pies, crumbles and roasted meats. And who wouldn't give everything away for a lunch of roasted turkey with trimmings, mince pies, ginger bread and apple cake. To be fair, there are a few recipes without which X'mas celebrations are incomplete.

We bring you a collection of such recipes so that you don't have to dig them up from an old granny's journal or fret over not doing justice to the authentic dish.

Here they are, made easy by expert chefs, and hope you have a great time cooking and serving your guests. Merry Christmas!

Pastry Chef Ravinder Singh Belwal of Fortune Select Excalibur Gurgaon tells us how to make delicious mince pies.

Mince pie
Ingredients:

For tart shell:
Butter 50 gms
Icing sugar 25 gms
Refined flour 70 gms

For filling:
Sugar 50 gms
Honey 20 gms
Apricot jam 20 gms
Caramel 5 ml
Rum 15 ml
Brandy 15 ml
Dry mix fruits 125 gms
Mix spices a pinch

Method:
To make tart shell:
- Mix the butter, sugar and refined flour to make dough.
- Mould the dough to make tart shell shape and keep aside some of the dough for covering the tarts with some shapes like stars.

For mixture:
- Combine all the ingredients that were kept for filling and mix them well.
- Fill the tart shells with the mixture.
- Cover the tarts with leftover dough in some design.
- Bake the tarts for 25 minutes on 160 degree C
- Serve the tarts by sprinkling sugar powder on them.

And it is ready to be wolfed down!

Chef Rajbeer Singh of Tivoli Garden Hotel gives a detailed account of roasting turkey at home. Don't get intimidated by the procedure as cooking turkey is considered the most significant part of Christmas preparations, probably as important and time consuming as dressing up the Christmas tree.

Roasted turkey
Ingredients:
50g/2oz butter
A sprig of fresh sage, leaves picked
12 strips of pancetta or thinly sliced streaky bacon
1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
4 medium red onions, peeled
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
A big handful of breadcrumbs
A handful of dried apricots
300g/10½ oz minced pork
Zest of 1 lemon a pinch of grated nutmeg
1 large free-range or organic egg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus a few extra
4-4.5kg/9-10lb turkey, preferably free-range or organic, at room temperature
2 carrots, peeled
1 large orange
Olive oil
2 tablespoons plain flour
1.1litres/2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

Method:
Warns Chef Rajbeer, "One of the biggest challenges when cooking a turkey is the legs take longer than the breasts. The breasts dry out in the oven while you're waiting for the legs to cook. I like to push stuffing between the turkey's skin and breasts, increasing the thickness of the breasts so they take the same time to cook as the legs." The result? Juicy turkey all round!

Preheat the oven to maximum. Heat a saucepan until medium hot and drop in the butter, sage leaves and 6 of the pancetta or bacon strips. Peel and chop 2 garlic cloves and 1 onion. Add the garlic, celery and onion to the saucepan and fry everything gently until soft and golden brown. Take the pan off the heat, add the breadcrumbs and, while the mix is cooling down, chop the apricots roughly and stir them in. When the stuffing has cooled down, add the pork, lemon zest, nutmeg, egg and lots of salt and pepper, and mix everything together well.

Slice the remaining strips of pancetta or bacon in half and slice 1 peeled garlic clove into thin slivers. Place a rosemary sprig and a garlic sliver on one end of a halved strip of pancetta and roll it up tightly. Repeat with the other pieces of pancetta until you have 12 little rolls. Stab the thighs and drumsticks of the turkey in 6 places on each side. Push a little pancetta roll into each hole until it just peeps out. This'll give your turkey thighs a fantastic flavour and will keep them moist while they cook.

Chop the remaining onions in half and slice the carrots thickly. Give your turkey a good wipe, inside and out, with kitchen paper, and place it on a board, with the neck end towards you. Find the edge of the skin that's covering the turkey's breasts and gently peel it back. Work your fingers and then your hand under the skin, freeing it from the meat. If you're careful you should be able to pull all the skin away from the meat, keeping it attached at the sides. Go slowly and try not to make any holes! Lift the loose skin at the neck end and spoon the stuffing between the skin and the breast, tucking the flap of skin underneath to stop anything leaking out. Pop the orange in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up and stuff it into the cavity. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time (about 20 minutes per 500g/1lb 2oz).

Place the bird on a large roasting tray, rub it all over with olive oil and season well. Surround with the chopped carrots, onions, remaining garlic, cover with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down right away to 180°C/350°F/gas 4, and roast for the calculated time, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if you pierce with it a knife or a skewer. Remove the tinfoil for the last 45 minutes to brown the bird. Carefully lift the turkey out of the tray and rest on a board that's covered loosely with foil for 20 minutes while you finish off the vegetables and gravy. Skim the surface fat from the roasting tray and add the flour and stock. Place the tray on the hob and bring to the boil on a high heat. When the gravy starts to thicken, strain it into a bowl. Carve your turkey, serve with the gravy and dig in!

And if turkey roasting is too tedious a job for you, you could try out another of Chef Rajbeer Singh's famous recipes, that of baked rice and chicken curry. It is a perfect main course item for a Christmas meal.

Baked rice and chicken curry
Ingredients:
Chicken legs (5)
Sliced onion (10gms)
Sugar (1/2tsp)
Peppercorn (1/2tsp)
Salt (1/4tsp)
Chopped garlic cloves (3)
Yellow curry powder (2tsp)
Oil (1tsp)
Precooked fragrant rice (2c)
Chicken stock cube (1/2tsp)

Method:
- First heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Take chicken legs, clean them and the pat dry them with paper towel.
- Take a bowl, mix stock cubes, sugar, salt, garlic, 1 teaspoon of curry powder in it and then mix coat the chicken legs in this mixture. Keep it for about 1 to 2 hours to marinate.
- Take a baking pan, put the chicken in it with marinade. Place the baking pan in oven and bake it for about 45 minutes at 190 degrees C.
- Meanwhile mix the cooked rice with rest of the curry powder and then fry them for about 1 minute in little oil by stirring regularly. Take foil cup and pack the rice in the cup and then place the cup in oven. Bake it for about 10 minutes.
- Take a small pan, fry the sliced rice in it until they get brown and keep them aside. Serve chicken and rice by decorating the rice with fried onions.

Any elaborate meal is incomplete without a fish preparation and the same holds good for Christmas too. Executive chef Deepak Dhanwariya of restaurant My Way or The Highway, which specialises in seafood delicacies, tells us how pan grilled fish with caper butter sauce is a fine way to add variety to the main course while appeasing seafood lovers as well.

Pan grilled fish with caper butter sauce
Ingredients:
Fish fillet (sole/bassa) 200gm
Olive oil 50ml
Egg 1nos
Mustard paste 10gms
Butter 10gms
Oregano 5gms
Garlic 5gms
Lime juice 20ml
Salt to taste
Black pepper (crushed) 10gms
Flour to dust
Blanch min vegetable 100gms
(Broccoli, carrot, beans)

Method:
- Clean and cut fish in 100gms fillet each.
- Marinate fish in mixture of egg, mustard paste, and oregano, lime juice, salt, black pepper. For 20-30 minutes.
- Dust fish in flour. Heat oil in pan and grill fish from both sides till its cooked and crispy.
- Prepare sauce in another pan add butter, garlic. Saute garlic till it cooks and gets crispy. - Serve fish on the bed of blanche vegetables and pour the sauce on the fish. Serve hot.

How about rounding up the meal with an 'orange zest brownie cake'? It's hint of orange and cocoa flavour is sure to take your guests by surprise, and not to mention, is a happy departure from the traditional plum cake. "Doesn't take much to bake one," as team 'Bagels & Brownies', a bake shop, points out, and your Christmas luncheon will be a runaway hit with the guests.

Orange zest brownie cake
Ingredients:
Butter 312 gm
Callebaut chocolate 375 gm
Eggs 7 nos
Sugar 312 gm
Flour 125 gm
Orange zest 200 gm
Cocoa power 30 gm

Method:
- First of all melt butter on medium flame or for extra precaution you can use double boiler if you are not so efficient to melt butter on flame because if the butter burns it will change the texture and taste of the orange zest brownie cake. Then melt callebaut (coverture) chocolate on double boiler; take care there should not be any water in the pan in which you are melting chocolate.
- Add melted chocolate into the melted butter, beat eggs and sugar together and let it fluff slightly for a better texture of the brownie, sieve flour and cocoa powder together.
- Add eggs and sugar batter into butter chocolate mix, add sieve flour and cocoa powder into the mix, and at last mix orange zest into the batter.
- Pour the cake batter into the greased tray and bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and turn onto a rack to cool.
- Baking instruction: Baking temperature 180 degree Celsius.