It's that time of the year again. Christmas is around the corner, churches are gearing up and streets are lit up across cities to spread festive cheer. The festive Christmas week is getting closer, bringing with it a slew of seasonal cheer. The air is filled with the enticing fragrance of freshly baked cakes and the joyful spirit of celebration. This time of year brings out an array of scrumptious treats, with Christmas cakes ruling supreme.
India has so many different communities, each with their own way of celebrating a festival. For instance, Christmas is celebrated in a variety of ways with a diversity of foods and customs. In Mumbai, the East Indian community gets into full swing in their kitchens and bakeries, churning out delicacies from secret recipes handed down the generations. The East Indians welcome the yuletide season with great fervour with unique sweet dishes ranging from kulkul, nankhatai, and date rolls to milk-cream, and marzipan. Then there is the Allahabadi Christmas Cake which originated in Allahabad's Anglo Indian community and involves baking with Agra peda, ghee, and spices.
Kuswar, also known as kuswad, is a platter of Christmas-themed sweets and snacks prepared and shared by Christians in the Konkan region. These traditional Christmas sweets are mostly a staple of the cuisines of Goan Catholics and Mangalorean Catholics.
The term comes from the Indo-Portuguese word "consoada", which means a Christmas Eve feast. Kidyos and nevryos, as well as Christmas cakes, duck roasts, marzipan, and other items, are offered as kuswar.
Many different traditional recipes contribute to the distinct flavour of Goa and Mangalore's Christmas celebrations. Coastal belts across Goa celebrate Christmas by sharing platters of these treats, which include a combination of sweets and savoury items as well as dry fruits. This is a holiday greeting for neighbours, relatives, friends, and coworkers.
The kuswar platter can feature a variety of traditional recipes that provide a special flavour to the region's Christmas celebrations, such as perada, a tangy and sweet guava cheese produced from guavas. Then there's kidyo or kulkuls, a semolina-based confection with coconut and cardamom flavours. And neuero, a fried sweet made with wheat and scented with coconut, cashew nuts, raisins, and cardamom. Other items are doce, a chickpea and coconut sweet variety, and marzipan.
You may also sample bolinhas - small cakes made with grated coconut, sugar, semolina, egg yolks, and butter. And baath, a moist, rich coconut tart baked in a large round shape with pastry lattice work on top. Other popular items are kormolas - coconut pastries shaped into flower buds, pinarg, made from jaggery and crushed rice, and Dodol, the popular dessert made of with a type of local jaggery and rice. The popular layered snacks of nankhatai are also a part of kuswar.
A common item in a kuswar platter is the bebinca with its fluffy, cake-like texture and sweet taste. This bebinca earned its place among a collection of other cherished Goan creations that bear the coveted GI (Geographical Indication) tag, solidifying its status as an authentic Goan treasure. The caramel-coloured delicacy is a big hit among the locals as well as tourists. The layered cake is a Christmas speciality, but it is now available in Goa all year round.