Christmas is that special time of the year, when everyone wants to spend time with their loved ones and make the most of those happy and cheerful moments. With Christmas round the corner everyone is busy preparing their signature goodies and works of art. People are planning out their special menus for the big day.

Preparing for the feast can be really easy if you plan out your menu with precision. Are you bored of making the same old dishes time and time again? This time round do you want to try out something new, easy to prepare and a mouth watering treat that will get everyone eating out of your hand.

Well heres a menu that you can never go wrong with and that will never let you down. Its more of an Indo-western spread. If you’re not too comfortable with spicy aspect, you may want to adjust the spice bit as per your taste. But I promise you from my personal experience, that if done and planned carefully it will surely be a hit with everyone.

Starting with that special drink: Chocolatini. For this one you can pick up the baileys chocolate liquer.

Chocolatini

For one serving

Drop several ice cubes in a shaker

Pour 50 ml of Baileys irish cream, 10 ml of vodka n 15 ml of the chocolate syrup over the ice.

Shake together

Stain the drink into a chilled glass

And you are ready

To go with this drink we can have some bite sized cottage cheese appetizers.

Indian style Paneer on a stick

(you can make a variation with just chopped vegetables)

Serves 8

Get ¼ kg of soft paneer

½ tsp garam masala (A ground mix of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaves)

1 tsp cayenne pepper powder

1 tsp of chaat masasla

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 tsp cumin powder

¼ tsp of coriander powder

2 tsp ginger garlic paste

½ cup curd

Salt to taste (since the chaat masala is slightly on the salty side, check the taste before adding more salt)

Small tooth picks or you can pick up skewers their size

Two big dark green capsicums

1 packet of mushrooms

A bowl of mint leaves

Method

• Cut the paneer (cottage cheese) into 1/2 inch long thick cubes
• Cut the capsicums into similar sized cubes
• Slice the mushrooms
• Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and keep aside
• Apply some of the marinade to the capsicums
• The rest of the marinade to be added to the paneer cubes and refrigerate it for 3 hours.
• Take the skewers
• First pierce in the one cube of capsicum
• Then pierce in 2 -3 leaves of mint
• Then pierce a slice of mushroom
• Followed by some mint leaves
• Then pierce a chicken cube
• Some more mint leaves
• A slice of mushroom
• Followed by mint leaves
• And finally by a capsicum cube
• Your skewer is ready to be shallow fried
• Heat some oil in a pan and place the skewers you have prepared in the pan.
• Keep turning the skewers regularly till well done on all sides.

Now for the main course

Spicy chicken appetisers

Ingredients

1 kg chicken (legs and boneless breast only)

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp lemon juice

For the marinade

450 ml of plain yoghurt

½ an onion coarsely chopped

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

2-5 cm of fresh ginger

1-2 roughly sliced hot green chillies

2 tsp of garam masala

Lime wedges

Method

• Cut the chicken leg into two pieces and make small decent sized pieces of the breast. Make gashes in the pieces to aid in the marination process.
• Make the marinade, combine the yoghurt, onion ginger garlic and garam masala in a blender. Strain the paste through a course sieve into a large bowl pushing through as much liquid as you can.
• Put the chicken into the bowl containing the marinade. Rub the marinate well into the chicken pieces so that the chicken is well coated with marinade.
• Keep the marinate mix in the refrigerator for around 3 – 4 hours.
• On completion of the marination you can either choose to shallow fry the pieces or bake it in the oven for 20 -25 mins.

Lamb Lahori

(you can use chicken)

Ingredients

• 1 chicken
• Salt , divided use 1 ¼ tsp
• Turmeric divided use ¾ tsp
• Cayenne pepper ¾ tsp
• Onions roughly diced 1 ½
• Garlic cloves 5 nos
• Ginger 2 inch piece
• Oil 3 tbsp
• Cinnamon stick 1
• 12 cardamom pods
• 8 whole cloves
• Black pepper 8
• 2 large tomatoes chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• Coriander chopped for garnishing
• Juice of one lemon
• ¼ cup beaten yoghurt
• Water 1 cup

Method

• Combine chicken , ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp turmeric and ½ tsp cayenne in a bowl. Stir to coat the chicken with the spices and let it stand.
• Finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger
• Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and peppercorns to it. Cook till the cardamom burst
• Add onion mixture and 1 tsp salt. Cook stirring until onion browns around the edges. Roughly for around 10 – 15 mins.
• Remove and discard the cinnamon, stir in remaining turmeric and cayenne. Add tomatoes and tomato puree and cook for 5 mins. Blend the mixture into a paste.
• Heat the remaining oil in a pan, add chicken and cook stirring for around 2 mins.
• Add the curd 1 tbsp at a time stirring well after each addition. Cook till it becomes slightly thick.
• Add pureed tomato mixture and bring to a boil. Add the water. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and cover it partially and cook for around 25 – 30 mins.
• Serve hot garnished with chopped coriander and lemon wedges.

Tip : the above dish can be accompanied by either some lovely naans or some nice saffron and jeera flavoured rice.

To wrap up this divine meal, what more can you ask for than

Mocha mousse

Serves 6 – 8

15 g powdered gelatine

60 ml of water

175 g dark chocolate broken up

10 ml good quality instant coffee dissolved in 50 ml boiling water

4 largeeggs separated

100 g castor sugar

300 ml double cream

• Sprinkle the gelatine over 60 ml water in a small sauce pan.
• Heat very gently until dissolved completely
• Put the broken chocolate and the dissolved coffee into a heat proof bowl over a sauce pan of hot water, until the chocolate has melted.
• Carefully stir the melted chocolate and the coffee liquid together.
• Whisk the egg yolk gradually adding the castor sugar and continue to mix the mixture till it is very thick.
• Stir in the melted chocolate and coffee and the liquid gelatine and leave it to cool
• Then fold in half the cream which has been whipped until it just holds its peak.
• Lastly whisk the egg whites until they are very stiff and using a large metal spoon fold them quickly and thoroughly through the mouse.
• Pour into a serving bowl and leave for several hours.
• Then cover with the remaining whipped cream.

That’s it. Viola ! it’s a really simple but mouth watering spread. Use your creativity and make this meal a lovely one which everyone will remember.