http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/24/460839331/from-beetroot-to-pineapple-homemade-wines-sweeten-christmas-in-india
From Beetroot To Pineapple, Homemade Wines Sweeten Christmas In India
NINA MARTYRIS
nmarty...@gmail.com
In October, Hilda Mascarenhas, who writes a popular food blog
in Pune, India, began her Christmas preparations with an
unusual request to her fruit seller.
After buying a pineapple, she asked the vendor to separately
pack the peel and eyes that he had skillfully removed with
his long knife.
Hilda's husband, Merwyn, though accustomed to his wife's
culinary experiments, was as mystified as the fruit seller.
What did the thick, thorny peel and tongue-lacerating eyes,
normally discarded as waste, have to do with Christmas?
He found out a month later when presented with a delicious
little glass of golden pineapple wine.
Across India, several Christian communities,
including the Goans, Mangloreans, Anglo-Indians and
East Indians, prepare sweet homemade wines for the
festive season from a rich array of local fruit,
roots and grain. Grape, raisin and ginger wine are
the staples, but many households also make wine
from beetroot, tomato, cashew, gooseberry,
jackfruit, jambhul, watermelon, bananas, mango,
mulberries and rice.
The wine is served along with rich plum cake and traditional
sweets like kulkuls and neuries to relatives and friends who
drop by on Christmas visits. It is also served to guests at
many Christian wedding receptions -- post-Christmas is
wedding season — when the toast to the bridal couple is
raised.
New York chef Floyd Cardoz, who grew up in Bandra -- a
once-quiet Mumbai suburb now home to some of the country's
best restaurants -- has fond memories of Christmas wine.
"My great-aunt used to make a bunch of wines — grapes for
sure, but oranges and pineapple too," he told the Salt. "It
was served in these very tiny plastic glasses. At the time,
unlike today, wine wasn't easily available in India, so the
only wine you got was the homemade stuff -- necessity really
is the mother of invention."
Though winemaking is an ancient Indian tradition, Christmas
winemaking is a colonial legacy of the British and the
Portuguese, who ruled the tiny coastal state of Goa for 500
years. Indian Christians, who form 2.3 percent of the
country's population, have adapted the traditional recipes,
using fruit like papaya and cashew "apples," and adding
chilies and spices to make a wine that appeals to the Indian
palate.
PHOTO: Across India, several Christian communities
prepare sweet homemade wines for the festive season
from a rich array of local fruit, roots and grain.
Above, a glass of golden pineapple wine. Courtesy
Merwyn Mascarenhas
For instance, Bridget Kumar White, a food writer in Bangalore
who is an authority on colonial-era Anglo-Indian cooking,
adds a dried red chili to her mulled ginger wine. "Ginger
wine is not a wine so much as a cordial," she says. "It works
as a good digestive after that heavy Christmas lunch of pork
curry or chicken curry." The chilies, along with a dash of
cinnamon, give the wine a pleasant kick.
A few years ago, Mangalorean food blogger Shireen Sequeira
was leafing through her mother's handwritten book of recipes
when she came upon one for rice wine. "I was fascinated," she
says, "but when I googled rice wine, the only recipes I came
across were for Japanese sake, which uses a brewing rather
than a fermenting process. So I just went by my mum's very
general instructions. I used basmati rice and added sugar,
yeast, raisins, limes and brandy. I was very pleased with the
result. The wine turned out a pale gold and tasted like toddy
[fermented palm sap]."
Beetroot wine, fermented in a large ceramic jug.
One of the pleasures of winemaking is watching the
fermentation -- which you can only do when using
glass jars. "For beetroot, which is a root, the
fizzing is mild, like a carbonated drink poured
into glass," says Hilda Mascarenhas, who writes a
popular food blog in Pune, India. Courtesy Merwyn
Mascarenhas
Though many households still make Christmas wine, the number
seems to be dwindling with each passing year. Many worry that
over time, the nuances and closely guarded secrets of making
tropical fruit wines will be lost.
It's just as well, then, that an invaluable book by Edwin
Saldanha called *Successful Goan Home Wines*, was published
in 1995. It contains 59 recipes, including those for wines
made from tea leaves, rhubarb, rose petals, kokum and
condensed milk. Saldanha, a retired schoolteacher who has
since died, liked to joke that he could even turn old shoe
soles into wine.
That his book -- now in its fifth edition -- exists is
largely due to the good offices of his microbiologist friend
Dr. Nandkumar Kamat, who is passionate about the science of
winemaking and who teaches an enology course in the botany
department at Goa University, where they have developed a
wine-making yeast by isolating and screening wild yeasts
found in local fruit.
"Once, when I visited Eddie's house at Christmas, I
was offered homemade ginger and chickoo wines and
became curious about his hobby," Kamat told the
Salt. "However, he was reluctant to part with his
recipes. It took me more than two years to persuade
him to compile his profound knowledge into a book.
I kept telling him, 'How long will you hold back,
and what will happen when age catches up with you
and you begin to forget the art and science of
making wines?' I managed to finally win his trust,
when he saw I had no personal interest except to
see his book published and his art appreciated in
India."
Fruit wines have a low alcohol content and a smooth, sweet,
mellow palate. "Sweetness depends on personal tastes," says
Mascarenhas. "Abroad, in the West, they like dry wines, but
in India we love sweet wines."
Made by fermenting the fruit pulp or peel with yeast, sugar,
water and in some cases, spices like nutmeg, the process --
though fairly straightforward -- is not without its hazards.
Mascarenhas and Sequeira provide some helpful tips for
aspiring winemakers: It's vital to use a clean and dry jar
(glass, stone or ceramic) without any lingering tastes or
smells. The jar should be covered with a piece of muslin or
cheesecloth whose porosity allows gasses to escape but keeps
the fruit flies away.
"If the fruit flies get at it, your wine will turn into
vinegar," says Mascarenhas.
During the two- to three-week fermentation period, the jar
should be stored undisturbed in a warm, dark, dry place.
Excessive humidity is the bane of wine and can cause fungus.
"For heaven's sake, don't keep the jar near the kitchen
sink," warns Sequeira.
One of the pleasures of winemaking is watching the
fermentation, which is possible only if you're using a glass
jar. "As the yeast eats into the sugar, a lot of dancing goes
on," says Mascarenhas. "You can watch the bubbling and
fizzing. For beetroot, which is a root, the fizzing is mild,
like a carbonated drink poured into glass, whereas a rich
fruit like pineapple releases more complex gases, causing
bigger bubbles to form."
Above all, patience is the key. "When I made the first batch
of pineapple wine, I was so excited -- we are human, after
all -- that I decanted the wine from my ceramic jar into
pretty crystal bottles after the first 10 days, when I
thought the fermentation was over," Mascarenhas ruefully
relates. "It was a big mistake. The glass stoppers flew out
like pressure-cooker weights. Luckily, my showcase [curio]
wasn't in their flight path."
The wine has to be strained several times to filter out the
sediment, which otherwise makes it muddy. Clarifying agents
include porous pieces of clay, a handful of wheat (which is
sticky and acts as a sponge), or a lightly beaten egg white,
which attracts impurities "like chewing gum," says
Mascarenhas.
By the end of the fermentation, the sediment
settles at the bottom, allowing for a luminous
clarity on top that resembles a stained-glass
window. "The jewel-like gold and ruby-red colors
are so Christmas-y, full of warmth and love," says
Mascarenhas. "It's a perfect symbol of festivity
over which to wish everyone a happy Christmas."
--
Nina Martyris [nmarty...@gmail.com] is a journalist based in
in Knoxville, Tenn. She reported this story from Pune, India.
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