The world of Goan sweets is various, scrumptious, and sometimes seasonal. In Goan properties, there may be an outdated, dying follow of consuming a candy — sometimes made with coconut and madachem godd (black palm jaggery) — within the month of August. This coconut jaggery combination or godd chunn finds its method into many Goan sweets ready throughout monsoon, from the crepe-like alle belle to the turmeric leaf steamed patoli.
Local vegatables and fruits, moreover the ever-present coconut and cashew nuts, discover their method into many scrumptious choices. While bebinca grabs the headlines, and most not too long ago a GI tag, there are lots of different sweets that deserve recognition.
Here are only a handful of them.
Dedos de Dama
It is a lollipop not like every other. The candy actually interprets to ‘lady fingers’ and is a cylindrical-shaped caramel sweet encasing a chewy marzipan-like combination. This was as soon as a candy discovered primarily at Goan weddings.
Dedos de Dama is a cylindrical-shaped caramel sweet
| Photo Credit:
Joanna Lobo
Crescy Baptista, co-founder, The Goan Kitchen, remembers wanting ahead to those lollipops as a toddler, and ready in queue at buffet strains at weddings to eat them. “I’ve always connected them to weddings,” she says. Baptista discovered to make this candy from her mother-in-law. Now, her dedos de dama is a should in any respect The Goan Kitchen’s sit-down lunches and catering occasions. “This remains a festive sweet because it is tedious to make, so you will not find it at many places,” provides Baptista.
To make Dedos de Dama, cashew nuts, coconut, and sugar are combined right into a dough, formed like fingers, placed on a stick, and rolled in caramel. To make sure the syrup dries evenly and to maintain the stick upright, individuals would stick this candy into fruits like pineapple or watermelon. This stick is gaily adorned with frilly wisps of paper.
Patoleo
Patoleo is made utilizing a rice flour paste full of a coconut-jaggery combination
| Photo Credit:
Joanna Lobo
Monsoon is when gardens are lush with turmeric leaves, that are essential for one primary candy — patoleo (patoli singular). This candy dish is made with rice flour paste full of a coconut-jaggery combination and steamed inside turmeric leaves.
Patoli is common in August, which is the start of the harvest season. In some villages, individuals have fun the harvest pageant with sweets utilizing rice flour and jaggery, like patoleo. It can also be made on the feast of the Assumption of Mary (on August 15). Hindus eat it throughout Nag Panchami, and Ganesh Chaturthi.
The recipe for the candy varies: some use palm jaggery, others, sugarcane; some add boiled chana dal; some use a combination of rice flour and wheat flour.
Holle is usually made at residence the place the identical stuffing is added to jackfruit leaves
| Photo Credit:
The Goan Kitchen
An analogous candy is dhonne/holle. It is usually made at residence the place the identical stuffing is added to jackfruit leaves, that are formed like a cone and held collectively by toothpicks.
Bolo Sans Rival
In the olden days, the standing of a household was judged by the sweets they laid out at their weddings. One of those sweets was Bolo Sans Rival or Bolo Sem Rival — bolo means cake (Portuguese) and sans rival is French for with out rival.
Bolo Sans Rival is a layered cake made with egg whites, cashew, and sugar
| Photo Credit:
The Goan Kitchen
Sans Rival is a layered cake made with egg whites, cashew, and sugar. Typically, it has a macaron-like layer of egg whites, cashew nuts, vanilla essence and sugar, sandwiched with buttercream. Originally made with almonds, Goans changed them with cheaper and extra accessible cashew nuts.
Indira Borges, founding father of I-Bakes, remembers consuming this cake solely at weddings. “People would use almond essence instead of almonds, and I remember it being very sweet.” Borges discovered herself gravitating in the direction of the cake as a method of utilizing up her leftover egg whites after making bebinca. “My brother suggested sans rival. I went and learned the recipe from a lady in Raia.” Borges Sans Rival is heavy on the cashew nuts, however has a pleasant chewy chew to it.
Tavsali
The tavsali, a cucumber cake
| Photo Credit:
Shubhra Shankwalker
Another seasonal monsoon vegetable making its method onto Goan plates is tavshi — fats, rectangular, yellowish-green cucumbers. This tavshi is used to make tavsali, a cucumber cake. This eggless steamed cake has grated cucumber, coarse rava (semolina), jaggery and coconut. Tavshe have plenty of water content material, making the resultant cake moist and fluffy.
“You roast the rava with ghee, add grated cucumber, a little water, jaggery, grated coconut, and cashew nuts. I add turmeric leaf because it imparts a lovely flavour and aroma,” says Shubhra Shankwalker, residence cook dinner and founding father of catering enterprise Aai’s. Once the combination is thick, she steams it on a banana leaf. The resultant cake is gentle, moist, and refreshing, with out being cloyingly candy.
Serradura
This pudding is believed to have entered Goa through the Portuguese from Macau. A layered dessert, served in a glass, it has crushed biscuits (typically combined with nuts) and sweetened whipped cream. Some name it ‘sawdust pudding’ due to its look and the feel of the biscuits.
Serradura, a layered dessert with crushed biscuits and whipped cream
| Photo Credit:
Taj, Goa
At his newly launched Goan restaurant, Segundo Bairro, Carmo Barretto serves serradura in a glass jar. “This is a popular dessert of Portuguese origin that is easy to make,” he says. “The skill lies in getting the right balance of condensed milk [Milkmaid] and cream, so it’s not too sweet. We layer ours with crushed Marie digestive biscuits.”
Toucinho do Céu
Toucinho do Céu is a wealthy, decadent almond cake. It interprets to ‘bacon from heaven’ as a result of older recipes would use pork lard for flavouring.
Toucinho do Céu interprets to ‘bacon from heaven’
| Photo Credit:
Joanna Lobo
“It is one of the most traditional sweetsin Portugal and its origin is in the convents. Egg whites used to be used for starching the garments used by priests and nuns. The surplus egg yolks inspired the nuns to create delicious sweets, like this,” says Marlene de Noronha Meneses, founding father of runs Marlene’s Tasty Treats.
She got here throughout this dish in 2006 in Lisbon at her aunt’s place. Marleneis one of many few (if not the one individual) making this dessert in Goa. She doesn’t use lard within the recipe, and serves the cake in cupcake type.
Shevyo, rice noodles with sweetened coconut milk
| Photo Credit:
Shubhra Shankwalker
Shirvolyo/ Shevyo
Shirvolyo are rice noodles, sometimes eaten with sweetened coconut milk, or god chunn (candy grated coconut).
Shubhra Shankwalker of Aai’s does a sit-down meal at her farm and serves rossantle sheviyo for dessert. To make it, rice is soaked in a single day, floor right into a batter and cooked until it turns into a ‘dough’. The dough is formed into cylindrical lumps, steamed, and handed via a machine known as shevgo to create the noodle strands.“It’s eaten with ross [sweetened coconut milk] or with coconut and jaggery for those who prefer it dry,” says Shankwalker. Interestingly, some individuals additionally add bananas to sweeten the ross. It’s a dish greatest eaten scorching.
Source: www.thehindu.com
