Pickled whole leg of pork

Turkey is to Christmas what gujia is to Holi, right? Wrong. While we tend to conjure up a picture of a stuffed and roasted (and possibly grumpy) turkey at the centre of a well-laden table on Christmas day, the meat that many actually love to eat in Bengal is not the rather bland flesh of the bird but the robust meat of a fat little pig. For pork, as chef Pradip Rozario stresses, forms a central part of a Bengali Christian’s Christmas meal.

And the chef should know. The owner of K.K.’s Fusion in Calcutta, himself a Christian, grew up watching his grandfather fuss around with a whole leg of pork weeks before Christmas. Thirty days before the grand festival, Grandpa would marinate the pork leg with vinegar, salt, bay leaves and black pepper. Then on Christmas day he would cook the pork along with some garlic in a frying pan on high heat to capture the juices. He added brandy and some water to it — and then covered it with a lid. He let it simmer for half an hour or so, and then served it hot or cold. For two kilos of pork, chef Rozario elaborates, he used one cup each of vinegar and brandy.

My eyes get misty when I think of grandfather Rozario’s dish. For the pork, in my opinion, is the tastiest of all meats. The meat is succulent, and adapts very easily to the flavours of the ingredients that you put into a dish, while retaining its own characteristic taste.

A sizzling melange of pork meats

Indeed, in many Christian families pork is celebrated in different ways on Christmas. Even now, a great many people in eastern India make their own sausages by cooking minced pork with masalas, and then stuffing it in either the sausage casings that you get in some stores now, or, as was traditionally done, in the cleaned intestines of a pig. Chef Rozario makes his sausages at home, then fries them in mustard oil and presents them with fried onions and dried red chillies, on a bed of steamed rice.

Home-made pork sausages in mustard oil

The humble pig finds itself on the high table in many parts of the world during the festive season. You have your roast pork (with or without an apple in its mouth) and crackling. There is jellied pork, prepared with pig’s feet and other parts that you may not want to know about before breakfast. And, of course, you can’t forget pork chops, flavoured with cranberry sauce, that form a part of many Christmas meals. Chef Rozario likes to grill his pork chops in mustard oil after marinating them in the tried and tested Indian way — with ginger and garlic paste — and then presents them with the sauce of your choice, along with grilled seasonal vegetables and mashed potatoes.

Pork chops with vegetables and mashed potatoes

The chef tells me that in many Bengali Christian homes, pork is cooked in all kinds of innovative ways in the run-up to their biggest festival. One day it can be a pork curry with white pumpkin and potatoes, and on another day, sausage curry, followed by diced pork with shredded cabbage and onions. You can have your pork meat loaf, or a pork kofta curry or a pork paya (trotters). Then, of course, you have your home-made roast pork sandwiches or kosa mangsho, a dish of pork meat in thick gravy.

I think the poor pig needs a good publicist. Despite the yeoman service it does to humankind — feeding us in all kinds of delicious ways all through the year, and especially around Christmas — we tend not to take the pig very seriously. We should. I was reading somewhere that pork is a great source of protein and contains all kinds of minerals — including iron, zinc, selenium, potassium and magnesium — and vitamins such as B6, B12 and so on. The calorie content is a bit high (200-400 per 100g), but what are a few calories here and there on Christmas day?

Pork and potato with onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies (Bhuna pork)

(serves 3-4)

Ingredients

• 500g pork cut into cubes (with fat) • 250g potato cubes • 30g ginger paste • 30g garlic paste • 2 sliced onions • green chillies as required • 3 bay leaves • 2tsp whole cumin seeds • 100ml mustard oil • 2tsp chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Take a kadai. Heat the oil in it. Add the potato cubes and fry till done. Remove and keep aside. Add the bay leaves and cumin seeds in the oil and cook for a minute. Add the pork, sliced onions and slit green chillies. Cook till the meat is done (adding a little water whenever required). Now add the potatoes and mix well. In a small bowl put the ginger and garlic paste. Mix it well with a little bit of water. Spread this over the meat and cook for two more minutes, tossing the pork and potato cubes. Top with chopped coriander leaves.