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Unique blend of Goan flavours

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Goan cuisine is characterized by its unique blend of flavors, influenced by Portuguese, Hindu, and Muslim cultures. It is known for its spicy and tangy taste and the use of coconut, seafood, and kokum as key ingredients.

Chef Sombir Choudhary of Raahi and Jamming Goat comments, “Goan Food consists of warm and comforting dishes that consist of novel culinary styles due to its colonial history. Goan cuisine uses ingredients like tomatoes, chilies, potatoes, cashew nuts, pineapple, vinegar, and bread-like pao. It surely gives us so many emotions to add to our dishes and takes us down memory lane to where our mothers have been using these ingredients in every household across the country. The spices used in the cuisine are achieved by pounding spices with muscle power and patience. It is one of the few cuisines which has kept the age-old traditional style of cooking like the usage of Varn – a grinding stone to make pastes, Dantem – a hand mill to ground spice powders, and the usage of brass for making desserts. This traditional method imparts distinctive taste and aroma to the food.” 

He adds, “The cuisine has been developed out of a merger of various cultures that came in contact with Goa during their colonization such as Portuguese, British, Arab, Brazilian, African, French, Malaysian, Chinese, and even Indian cultures like Konkani, Malabari, Saraswat, and South Indian. This diversity in the cuisine is sure to be a delight to the mother’s palate and offers a wide scope of spices and intense flavors in the dishes.”

Here are some mouthwatering Goan meal recipes that you may make at home:

Goan Prawn Curry (10 portions) I By Chef Sombir Choudhary, Jamming Goat 3.0

For masala paste: 

Freshly grated coconut – 4 nos.

Byadgi Mirchi – 125gms

Sankeshwari Mirchi – 75 gms

Coriander seeds – 150 gms

Jeera whole – 30 gms

Garlic cloves peeled – 20 nos.

Black Pepper – 4 nos.

For tempering

Refined Oil – 45 ml

Onion sliced – 300 gms

Turmeric – 5 gms

Ginger juliennes – 75 gms

Tomato juliennes deseeded – 100 gms

Kokum – 7 nos.

Fresh Coconut Milk – 750 ml

Prawns:

Prawns (deshelled with tail) – 1 kg

Turmeric – 4 gms

Onion sliced – 150 gms

Ginger – 30 gms

Tomato – 100 gms

For Garnishing:

Coriander leaves

Grated coconut

Method:

Blend coconut, both the type of chillies, coriander seeds, Jeera, peeled garlic cloves and black pepper into a fine paste

In a pan, add refined oil, add ginger, onion, turmeric powder, tomato along with salt. Let this masala cook for a few seconds, post which add the paste that was made earlier. Add some water, add more salt if required, and then add the kokum to this curry. If the kokum is added initially, it will burn and not give the required taste

Allow it to cook until the masala loses its raw flavor. Remove the kokum if the curry is sour as per your taste. Now finish with coconut milk to balance the sourness of the kokum

For the prawns, clean them and mix them in another pot with turmeric powder, onion, ginger, tomato and salt

Add just enough water for the prawns to cook,drain the water and then add them to thecurry made initially

Do not allow the gravy to boil once again else it will release its oil on top

Garnish with some coriander leaves and grated coconut

Finally, serve the curry hot with rice or pao

Cheesy Beetroot Tikki I By Chef Vishal Said, Magique

20 grams Oil

200 grams Beetroot

50 grams potatoes

10 grams garlic

10 gram ginger

5 grams green chilli

5 grams chilli powder

2 grams jeera powder

2 grams garam masala

30 grams Roasted Channa dal powder

20 grams cashew powder

30 grams ghee

8 grams salt

75 grams processed Cheese

For the dip:

50 grams Hung Curd

25 grams processed Cheese

5 grams garlic

1 gram back pepper powder

2 grams parsley

Method:

Add oil to a pan

Add garlic, ginger & green chillies into the oil and sauté for 2 minutes

Add boiled and grated beetroot & potatoes to the pan and cook them for 3-4 minutes

Add the chilly powder, jeera powder, garam masala and salt. Cook it till all the mixture comes together

Remove the pan from the fire and mix the roasted Channa dal powder, Cashew powder

Divide the mixture into 5 parts

Stuff cheese into the mixture & shape them into round tikki shape

Add ghee to the pan and grill it on both sides

Serve the tikkis hot with the dip

Mix all the ingredients together to form a creamy, tasty dip

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