Must Try Christmas Recipes

Have you finalised your Christmas Menu yet? If not, here’s a collection of recipes that I’ve selected specially for you. I first posted this round up in 2015 as “Must Try Kerala Christmas Recipes”. This time I’ve widened the scope by including non Kerala recipes as well.

Time and again, I’ve shared with you, how I find menu deciding to be more daunting than actual cooking. I’m sure  many of you are nodding your heads in agreement with me. That’s why I thought, I’ll just share my pick of recipes with you.

I’ve added some new recipes in the round up and removed some old recipes. Hope you find it interesting and helpful!

We, Jose & Maria, Wish you and your loved ones a Very Merry Christmas!

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I take my words back… Compiling Christmas Cake recipes was definitely a “cakewalk” compared to this one. I’m exhausted trying to figure out which recipes will make the final cut in this list. But, I’m glad with this one, it’s a real good list, if I say so myself. This looks like the “who’s who” list of Kerala Non Veg Recipes ;)

Though Christmas feast in Kerala or for that matter Easter feast, is about meat, meat and more meat, I’ve tried to give a good representation to the fish and seafood recipes and a not so bad representation to veg recipes. What if, you want to include some vegetarian friends in your Christmas celebration. You should be up and ready for any scenario, right?

So, without much further ado, I present the “Must Try Kerala Christmas Recipes”…Fruit Cake & Wine is very much a part of Kerala Christmas celebration. But I’ve already given you a good enough reminder about that, I dont want to do overdo it.

Shall we start with the breakfast recipes?  I guess that will be the first thing you’ll be having after attending a Midnight mass or Morning mass or even if you dont attend any mass ;)

Since this list is kinda exhaustive, it’s in a different format from the Cake roundup list. Hope it’s ok with you…

Please note, this post focuses only on Kerala Style Christmas recipes. You can see Other varieties of Christmas Recipes here

Christmas Breakfast Recipes (Main Dishes):

What’s a Christmas breakfast without some Appam and Stew right? So, we will start with that. Just for the record, for the millionth time, I’m a die hard fan of Palappam. How can anybody not love it? The spongy centre with the crispy rentha (lace) soaked in Coconut milk based stew, that’s kind of a food heaven for me. But, if you are not a Palappam fan, you can go with Kallappam (Vellayappam) or Idiyappam or Neer Dosa , Erachi Pidi, or our very own Puttu.

Kallappam (Vellayappam), Palappam, Idiyappam

Puttu, Neer Dosa, Erachi Pidi

Christmas Breakfast Recipes (Side Dishes):

Appam and stew is the time tested combo. But how about  Mutton Stew or Nadan Beef Curry or Duck Roast or Spicy Mutton Curry or Fish Molly or Veg Stew or Alleppey Veg Curry or White Kadala (Chana) Curry or Egg Roast or Green Peas Masala. See the list is endless…

Chicken Stew, Mutton Stew, Veg Stew

Spicy Mutton Curry, Fish Molly, Nadan Beef Curry

Duck Roast, Egg Roast

Alleppey Veg Curry,  Green Peas Masala, Kerala Vella Kadala (Chana) Curry

Christmas Snacks Recipes:

Ok, now that you had a good breakfast, you wanna take rest for a while. But around pre noon time, you feel like snacking something, either because you are hungry or just because it’s Christmas and you are in good company ;) How about some cutlets? It can be Beef Cutlet, Chicken Cutlet, Fish Cutlet, Tuna Cutlet, Veg Cutlet or it can be something like Easy Chicken Fry, Chicken Samosa. The good thing about these snacks is all these can be made ahead and froze, You just need to thaw them and fry them.

Fish Cutlet, Beef Cutlet, Chicken Cutlet

 

Fish Crumb Fry , Chicken Croquettes , Fish Fingers

Potato Pops , Spinach & Mushroom Rolls , Vegetable Cutlet

Christmas Lunch Recipes:

Well, this is going to be a long list! If you didnt have a heavy breakfast, hoping to have a lavish feast during lunch time, you can start with some of the recipes given under the breakfast section here like Appam and Fishmolly or Duck Roast.

Biriyani seems to be a favorite choice for many. How about MM’s very popular Chicken Biriyani recipe? My Fav is this Mutton Biriyani recipe. Well, we cannot not have Beef biriyani right? Here comes another fav dish of mine, Kappa Biriyani. However, if you dont want too much meat, how about some Fish Biriyani or Prawns Biriyani or Egg Biriyani? If you are a veggie, you can have this Pressure cooker Veg biriyani (another reader fav) or this Paneer Biriyani (one of my fav veg recipes)

Beef biriyani , Kappa Biriyani

Prawns Biriyani , Fish Biriyani , Prawns Biriyani in Green Masala

Mutton Biriyani , Chicken Biriyani

Pressure cooker Veg biriyani , Egg Biriyani , Paneer Biriyani

May be Biriyani is something, you make quite often, so you want to try something different. How about Some Pulao and Curries? You can either go with Ghee Rice, Veg Pulao or Masala Pulao.

Ghee Rice, Veg Pulao ,Masala Pulao

You need some Curries to go with this Rice dishes, right?

Let’s start with my fav, Beef Recipes : Kallu Shappu Beef Fry (again very popular on MM), Beef Ularthiyathu, Thattukada Beef Curry, Nadan Beef Curry, Beef korma, Beef Varutharachathu, Beef Podi Masala

Kallu Shappu Beef Fry , Beef korma

 

Beef Ularthiyathu, Thattukada Beef Curry

Beef Varutharachathu, Beef Podi Masala , Nadan Beef Curry

Chicken Side dishes:  Chicken Fried Roast, Nadan Chicken Curry, Pepper Chicken (another reader fav), Restaurant Style Chicken Curry, Chicken Dry Roast, Chicken Tomato Roast

Chicken Ghee Roast , Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Fried Roast , Chicken Dry Roast, Chicken Tomato Roast

Restaurant Style Chicken Curry ,  Pepper Chicken (another reader fav), Nadan Chicken Curry

Mutton Recipes: Mutton Pepper Fry, Spicy Mutton Curry, Kuttanadan Mutton Roast, Mutton Ularthiyathu, Nadan Mutton Curry

Spicy Mutton Curry, Mutton Ularthiyathu , Mutton Pepper Fry

Mutton Masala , Mutton Korma

 

Duck & Pork Recipes: Kuttanadan Duck Roast, Pork Roast

Pork Roast , Kuttanadan Duck Roast

Pork Vindaloo , Kerala Pork Fry

Fish & Prawns Recipes: Meen Pollichathu, Fish Fry, Fish Roast, Karimeen Mappas, Meen Vevichathu, Meen Manga Curry, Fish Curry with Coconut Milk, Varutharacha Fish Curry, Prawns Ularthiyathu, Prawns Pollichathu (My Grandma’s recipe) , Prawns Roast, Crab Roast

Meen Pollichathu , Restaurant Style Fish Roast , Fish Roast

Meen Manga Curry , Fish Curry with Coconut Milk, Varutharacha Fish Curry ,

Prawns Ularthiyathu , Crab Roast , Prawns Roast

 

Meen Vevichathu , Fish Fry , Karimeen Mappas

Egg & Veg Recipes: Egg Roast, Egg & Potato Curry, Egg Thoran, Kadala Curry, Parippu Curry, Parippu Thalichathu, Ulli Theeyal, Vazhakka Upperi, Green Peas Masala,  Sambar, Vellarikka Moru Curry, Kachiya Moru, Thoran, Vendakka Curry

Egg Roast , Kadala Curry, Egg & Potato Curry

Green Peas Masala , Egg Thoran , Parippu Thalichathu

Sambar , Vellarikka Moru Curry , Ulli Theeyal

Vendakka Curry , Vazhakka Upperi

Muringayila Parippu Curry , Beetroot Lentil Crumble , Veg Kurma

Desserts Recipes:

Since December is kinda cold in most parts of the world, I’ve included some warm desserts as well. Here’s a pick of my fav desserts for the occasion

Dates Butterscotch Self-Saucing Pudding, Orange Almond Cake , Hot Fudge Chocolate Cake

Salted Caramel Panna Cotta , No Bake Cheesecake With Jelly , Caramel Custard

Dinner Recipes:

If you did get to try some of the above recipes, I’m guessing, you might want to give a break to your tummy and go slow. So how about some good old Kanji (rice porridge) and Vanpayar Mezhukkupuratti or Cherupayar Thoran with some nice Thenga Chammanthi or Manga Chammanthi or Chammanthi Podi with some good old Nellikka Achar or Manga Achar and Pappadom?

I remember having Kanji and payar for dinner for most of my childhood Christmas and Easter dinner. By dinner time, most of us used to feel so full and almost have this feeling of “good for nothing” resulted from indulging in a Lavish Christmas breakfast and lunch. Steaming hot Kanji with some Payar and Chammanthi and Pappadom was such a  comfort at the end of the day!

Cherupayar Thoran , Vanpayar Mezhukkupuratti

Manga Chammanthi , Chammanthi Podi , Thenga Chammanthi

Manga Achar , Nellikka Achar

If you feel like venturing outside Indian / Kerala Cuisine for Christmas, here’s a few suggestions. After all, we Malayalees are nothing, if not “international” ;)

Chicken Alfredo Pasta , Sloppy Joe , Shepherd’s Pie

Finally, I’m done with this list! Hope you had the patience to scroll down this huge list of recipes and I do really hope some of these recipes will be a part of your Christmas menu :)