art-culture

Goa

Goan cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa, located along India's west coast along the Arabian Sea. Seafood, coconut milk, rice and paste are main ingredients of Goan delicacies. The area is located in a tropical climate, and spices and flavors are intense. Use of Kokum is another distinct feature. Goan food cannot be considered complete without fish, and the cuisine is mostly seafood based; the staple foods are rice and fish. Kingfish (Vison or Visvan) is the most common delicacy, others include pomfret, shark, tuna and mackerel. Among the shellfish are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns, lobster, squid and mussels. The cuisine of Goa is influenced by its Hindu origins, four hundred years of Portuguese colonialism, and modern techniques. The state is frequented by tourists visiting its beaches and historic sites, so its food has an international aspect. Goan Saraswat Brahmin and Daivajna Brahmins are mostly fish eaters. Broadly they can be considered as facultative vegeterians, i.e. they eat fish and chicken on most of the days, while eating strict vegetarian (no meat, no-fish diet) food on some days, due to religious reasons. Fish and meat in their diet is considered as non-vegetarian. On the other hand other Brahmins belonging to Pancha Dravida category are strictly vegetarian. Their vegetarian cuisine is unique

Doce Bhaji

Doce Bhaji or Doce Baji the lapsi from Goa, what every family should cook up for nursing mothers to nourish them and also put a smile on their face.

Apart from that, Doce Baji makes a very delicious tea time sweet. Delicious enough for the entire family to forget who it was originally cooked for. We have been blessed with a baby boy on the 23rd of December, and my parents with their third grand child :)

So lets take a look at how to cook up the Doce Bhaji for the entire family!

Doce Bhaji Ingredients:

250 Grams Broken Wheat

1 Coconut for Thick and Thin Coconut Milk

150 Grams or More Sugar

3 Tablespoons Ghee

1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg

3 - 4 Elaichi

Pinch of Salt

Feijoada : Red Beans with Pork

Feijoada is famous enough to have a wiki entry that states, Feijoada is a stew of beans with beef and pork, which is a typical Portuguese dish, also typical in Brazil, Angola and other former Portuguese colonies.

So yet again we have a Goan delicacy that has been handed down to us from the Portuguese, lets cook up some Goan Feijoada.

If you recollect that we had put up a simple recipe called Salted Pork up earlier. Our Feijoada utilizes the salted pork before its ready, so basically you can have two dishes on your table when you make Feijoada. The other option is to use goa sausages and beans to make an even easier Feijoada.