Season's eatings
The UQ community shares its favourite festive recipes
By Rachel Westbury
The silly season is upon us, and in preparation for the celebrations to come, Contact asked members of the UQ community to share their favourite festive recipes and the stories behind them.
From a flavourful duck curry to a shortbread recipe shared down generations, and all kinds of kitchen creations in between – each of these special recipes represent a connection to food, to place and to family.
If you would like to whip up any of these dishes yourself, you can download the recipe cards to save, print or share with loved ones. Want to try them all? Scroll through the story to view the full recipe collection.
Let's get cooking!
Kerala Duck Curry
By UQ Chancellor, Peter Varghese AO
My favourite festive recipe is duck curry and appam.
This is a dish that, for generations, my family has always eaten at Easter and Christmas.
We are from a Syrian Christian community in Kerala, India, which was converted by St Thomas the apostle. So, it is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
Duck is a popular dish among the Syrian Christian community in Kerala. Like many other Kerala dishes, it uses a lot of coconut, cloves, pepper and cinnamon – all of which are abundant in that part of Southern India.
The dish is usually eaten for brunch on Christmas.
The duck curry is served with appam, which is a type of rice and coconut milk pancake.
Here, I am only sharing the duck curry recipe because, in our family, I tend to cook the curry when I can, and my wife Margaret makes the appams (notwithstanding the fact that there is no known linkage between appams and her Irish Australian ancestry.)
The recipe is from Mrs K.M. Mathew's book on Kerala Cookery.
This dish can also be made with chicken, but the duck version has a fuller flavour.
Stained Glass Window Cake
By Caroline Frazer, 2021 UQ Alumnus of the Year
This is an old favourite recipe for Christmas given to me by a friend many years ago.
We used to organise a cooking day and make our cakes together along with other Christmas goodies with the children helping and playing.
It was a great start to the Christmas season for us and much more fun doing the cooking all together.
This is a solid cake. Slice with a carving knife and serve in fingers.
White Christmas
By Professor Alastair Blanshard,
Paul Eliadis Professor of Classics and Ancient History
This is probably the very first recipe I remember making as a child.
Looking back, I think it is was used as a way to keep me occupied while my parents could tackle all the serious Christmas cooking.
White Christmas is a perfect dish for young children wanting to kick off their Junior MasterChef journey.
No cutting is involved, only a little bit of technical skill is required, and the results are pretty instantaneous.
The secret to the recipe is copha. What is copha? God knows. To be honest, I’ve often been too afraid to investigate. However, I choose to believe that it is a solidified form of angel’s tears produced by joy and laughter… and I won’t be told differently.
Best served with: a good glug of nostalgia and a double shot of irony.
Miks Chai GulGula (Indian Donut)
By Mikhara Ramsing, 2021 UQ Distinguished Young Alumni Award recipient
My Aaji (grandmother) was the one who had the patience and joy in teaching us how to cook. Whenever we smelt the rich aroma of a pot of chai on the stove, we knew we needed to be in the kitchen next to Aaji.
Over numerous cups of hot chai, we learnt recipe after recipe, wisdom and culture passed through a wooden spoon and a kind hand. One day, I hope my hands will pass down this knowledge too.
Since we were always drinking chai while cooking, we often had fun experimenting with chai flavours in our baking. This is one such exciting result.
A cup of chai with my Aaji has always been my safe place – where I could confide my deepest worries and celebrate my highest joys. It was such an important space to me, especially as I navigated brining my Indian community into my identity as a queer woman. To have this safe place over a cuppa with my Aaji meant I could create a home of love and understanding.
It's why I believe stories save lives and started brewing my Aaji's chai to share with the world, so other people could have a safe space to share their stories over a cuppa. And why 50 per cent of all profits go to suicide prevention.
The biggest holiday we celebrate is Diwali, but we love all family centered holidays and look forward to making these around the family kitchen table over Christmas.
Summer Ceviche
By Nimrod Klayman, Head of Entrepreneurship at UQ
In summer, one of my favourite recipes is ceviche, which I was introduced to while travelling around Peru.
Ceviche is a light and healthy dish, usually served as an appetiser.
It's made from fresh raw fish marinated in lemon and/or lime citrus juices. The acidity in the citrus cures the fish causing it to become firm and opaque while absorbing flavour.
This recipe is special to me, because it reminds me of the time that I travelled around the world and met with many great people and got exposed to many new dishes and new flavours. It's a celebration of summer, which is my favourite time of the year.
While I tried it for the first time in Peru, I decided to prepare it by myself once I got home.
Not knowing where or how to start, I found a fantastic recipe from the Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi. Although, Yotam doesn't call it ceviche in his recipe.
Still, to me, it seems more like a ceviche since the fish is marinated in lemon, and the acid cooks it.
As in the original preparation, he recommends using trout, but it can also be made with salmon in my recipe.
Best served with: friends, in summer, and with icy beers.
Nostalgic Shortbread Biscuits
By Jessie Harper, 2021 UQ Graduate of the Year
This was my Grandma’s shortbread recipe, which was a staple at our family Christmas celebrations.
It's an old recipe that has been passed down through generations of my family.
It's special because it reminds me of my Grandma, and I was fortunate to have a very close relationship with her. I cherish my memories of her and the recipes she has passed on to our family.
Shortbread is a nostalgic treat that reminds me of my childhood, especially during Christmas. We always enjoyed the biscuits with a cup of tea in-between meals during Christmas Day.
Every year throughout my childhood, my family – including my sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great aunts and uncles – would meet at my grandparents’ farm for Christmas.
We loved playing cards, different sports and Secret Santa, as well as feeding the animals, but food was an important part of our celebrations.
I remember my aunts and uncles requesting a large bag of shortbread each year to take home after Christmas.
Grandma's Christmas Trifle
By Dr James Fielding, 2021 UQ Distinguished Alumni Award winner, Audeara CEO
This is Christmas for me, and it's hard to have Christmas without it.
My Grandma just turned 90 but that's no reason to slack off, and she'll need to make at least two this year because it's going to be a two-day affair.
Why is this recipe special? It's probably the love – and maybe the sherry – but it gives you a nice Christmas feeling to end a meal with. Sweet spongy deliciousness, often eaten on the way to, or from, the pool.
By the time Grandma's trifle is served, Christmas is in full swing and people can be all over the place. But everyone will faithfully return to the table for at least one serve of trifle.
It's even better for Boxing Day breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Best served with: friends and family, and a glass of anything that makes you feel good.
Want to try all the recipes featured? Access the full recipe collection below.
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