Traditional Goan Dishes and Cuisine Of Goa

The cuisine of Goa has a lot of Portuguese influence in it like most things in Goa. The staple diet of Goa is rice with fish curry. Coconut and Coconut oil is widely used in Goan cooking along with Chillies, pepper, spices and vinegar giving the food a unique flavour. Xacuti a popular dish made out of grated and fried coconut, Chicken and assorted spices is a favorite on festive occasions amongst the Catholics and Hindus alike. Pork dishes such as Sorpotel are cooked for major occasions among the Catholics. We describe a few typical traditional Goan dishes
The picture below shows a party spread for special occasions in a typical Goan household. The crokery depicted is antique Portuguese era crockery still in use in a few Goan Homes.

Party spread at a Goan Home for Special Occasions

Bebinca – Goan Speciality

Bebinca

   This is Goan speciality prepared at almost every Goan Catholic Home at Christmas. It is made of egg yolks (Sometimes the egg whites are also added), sugar, coconut milk and flour.
   It is multilayed dessert the layers are obtained by mixing one half of the batter with powdered sugar which is caramelised and browned.
   In case you are curious, we have the recipe of bebinca for you in our recipes of Goa section.

Batica – A Goan sweet dish

Batica

Batica is a Goan sweet dish or dessert is prepared by first peparing a batter of grated coconuts, rawa, sugar, eggs and butter. The batter is mixed thouroughly and kept overnight. It is then poured into a baking dish and baked the next morning.

Sanna

This is a traditional steamed rice preparation popular among Catholics and Hindus alike and prepared by them on several special occasions. On the outside Sannas would appear to be somewhat like idlis but they are totally different in texture as well as taste.
Sannas are prepared by mixing ground rice, grated coconut and toddy and a bit of sugar to aid the fermentation process. The mixture is kept overnight to ferment. Early in the morning, the mixture is put in uniform moulds called "vantleo" made of stainless steel. These moulds are then placed in a large copper vessel with an air tight lid called confro for steaming. After a certain amount of time dictated by the size of the mould they are removed and the next batch goes in. Freshly made Sannas are nice and soft in texture and slightly sweet in taste. Another variety is prepared by mixing Coconut Jaggery in the batter and the process of making them is similar to the plain variety.

Pork Sorpotel, A Popular Traditional Goan Dish

Sorpotel

   Just as Fish and Chips go together in England, it's Sannas and Sorpotel in Goa. Sorpotel is a dish made of Pork and dry red Chilli Masala along with an assortment of other spices and a dash of sugar.
   An elaborate preparation method goes into preparing this dish. First the pork is boiled with water until the meat is almost cooked. Then the pork is cut into pieces and fried in its own fat. The ginger and garlic finely cut as well as cut green chillies are added to the pork stock (water remaining after boiling).
   A masala is prepared by grinding together dried red chillies, coriander, turmeric, pepper and jeera in vinegar. After adding tamarind it is kept on fire till fully cooked. In case you are interested in knowing more refer to Goan Pork Sorpotel for the recipe.

Pork Assado

Beef Assado and Pork Assado

There are different variations of this dish. Usually pork or beef are used in the preparation. Assado which means roast is prepared by first boiling the meat till it is almost cooked and the water used to cook it is almost dry. It is then sliced and fried with Ghee or oil. This is very popular as it does not get spoilt easily and does not involve much trouble to cook.
A very simple way of preparing roast beef is by first marinating the beef cut into blocks in ginger garlic paste and a little of chilli paste ground in vinegar. In a pot onions are fried in oil and to it is added the marinated blocks of beef. After frying for some, time sufficient quantity of water is added. Then cinnamon, cloves and pepper is added. Green chillies are also added. It is then allowed to cook fully. When the water is almost dry it is removed from fire. The beef is then sliced and fried.

Bangdo Recheado or Stuffed Mackeral

This is another Goan dish with a strong Portuguese influence in it. The word "recheado" means filled or stuffed. This dish involves slitting the bangdo or Mackeral parallel to its bones and stuffing it. The stuffing consists of finely cut onions and a special masala. Two types of Masalas are used the red masala which is basically a paste of dried red chillies in vinegar and brown recheado masala which is ginger garlic paste, tamarind. Finely cut onion is mixed with any of these masalas to whicha pinch of sugar is added.
After the mackerals are stuffed, they are kept for marinating. They are then rolled in rawa which is optional and then fried in a frying pan which has oil upto a depth of about half an inch. After they are done on both sides they are removed from fire.

Dried Fish Curry (Kharyachem Humon)

   This dish is usually prepared during the moonsoon season when fresh fish is rare. Firstly a good quality of dried fish (Kharem) is selected.
   The dried fish curry is prepared by soaking the dried fish in water and removing the heads. After the fish is sufficiently soft, the bones are removed and the water which had been used to soak the fish is then used to grind the masala for the curry. The masala is made of grated coconut, red dried chillies , turmeric and tamarind. A few green chillies are also added. This masala is then ground to a fine paste.
   This masala is then mixed with water to medium consistency and to it is added the soaked fish pieces, Slit green chillies, Cocum rinds and dried berries called theifolam in Konkani (trifala Berries). While the curry cooks crushed garlic and ginger pieces are added. This curry is usually made of dried mackerals, but other similar size fish and prawns are also used.