GOAN CUISINE is undisputedly one of the world’s most flavoursome and palate-tingling ones. But have we ever stopped to wonder why? What is it that makes the cuisine so delectable? The answer is, quite simply, its ingredients. In fact, the majority of these ingredients—cashew, kokum, bimbli, jackfruit, triphala, among others—are home-grown, a fact not many susegado (laidback) Goans have taken seriously or flaunted to the world. Until now.
Goans are now waking up to the versatility of their unique fruits and vegetables—buoyed by the efforts of the tourism ministry, hotels and enthusiastic chefs—and are trying to popularise their local ingredients, extolling their virtues and use to the outside world. The once-derided ingredients for ‘comfort food’ have now been elevated to essentials for ‘haute cuisine’.
The Coconut and Cashew Festival, for instance, was organised recently by the state tourism ministry to showcase the multiple uses of coconut and cashew to visitors. Similarly, Park Hyatt Goa Resort & Spa has been organising the Cashew Trail festival since the last four years during the harvest season to celebrate and trace the life journey of Goa’s beloved fruit, with the aim of acquainting people with the varied uses of cashew—both the apple and nut variety—in cooking. Edridge Vaz, sous chef, Casa Sarita, Park Hyatt Goa Resort & Spa, has been creating unique dishes with local ingredients, showcasing Goan food to tourists for quite some time now.
Other chefs, too, are doing their bit to popularise these ingredients through food promotions and coming up with interesting dishes using these components. Cashew, for instance, is consumed popularly as a snack across India. However, for Goans, its fruit, or cashew apple, comes in handy as well—and not just for the legendary feni or urrak drinks. Chef Deepa Awchat of Mumbai’s Goa Portuguesa restaurant opines that every part of cashew can be put to use in cooking. “With the cashew apple, one can make a salad by cutting it into small cubes and adding salt, sugar and chilli powder. Of course, the soothing drink neera, too, is made from cashew fruit juice,” she says. With the aim of giving the fruit a new lease of life, Vaz, too, has been experimenting with cashew apple, resulting in creations like cashew sorpotel (a pork delicacy), cashew apple chutney, jam and balchao (a spicy prawns pickle).
Traditionally, Goan households, especially Catholic familes, use cashewnut in a paste form in Christmas sweets, marzipan or in a Sunday pulao. Hindu families integrate it in their shivrak, or vegetarian, preparations—bibbe (cashewnut in Konkani) upkari (stir-fry) is quite famous (cooked, tender cashewnuts are stir-fried with ivy gourd and potatoes to make a delicious side dish served with rice or bhakris).
The tender, soft cashewnut is available for a few months before the advent of summer and is generally plucked and peeled much before it matures. Its soft texture is what sets it apart and lends the right flavour to vegetable preparations. Chefs like Awchat are striving to create interest around such ingredients outside Goa as well. The menu of her restaurant, Goa Portuguesa, in Mumbai offers delectable dishes made with cashewnuts —tender coconut cashew sukhe and raw soaked cashewnut bhaji are hugely popular dishes. “A number of vegetarian delicacies can be made with soaked cashewnuts combined with other vegetables like tendli (ivy gourd). There is also a preparation of only raw cashewnuts known as bebya in which you add tempered chillies with mustard seeds and grated coconut,” she says.
Traditional dishes aside, chefs are now creating mouth-watering global dishes as well with cashews to wow the universal palate. As part of Cashew Trail this year, chefs at Park Hyatt Goa showcased innovative dishes like raw mango and spicy cashewnut sauce, urrak chicken shawarma, prawn flambé with feni, cashew-crusted fish, cashew-coated chicken fingers with curry mayonnaise and fresh cashew fruit crumble, among others.
There are other ingredients, too, sharing the limelight with cashew. One of these is kokum. Basically, what tamarind is to other parts of India, kokum is to Goa. This souring agent, reddish in colour, grows abundantly in Goa. “Kokum is used in fish curries made with sardines and mackerels. It is also used in solkadi, the soothing digestive drink made with coconut milk,” says Awchat. Vaz agrees, “Kokum lends a nice flavour to a fish or prawn curry, ambot tik (a hot and sour curry), pork amsol (dried raw mango), solkadi and tival (a drink). In vegetarian dishes, it is usually combined with bhindi (bhendya shivark-saar, or okra in coconut gravy, is a typical preparation).”
Bimbli is yet another fruit used by locals to impart a sour-tangy flavour to curries and lentils. It is also used for chutneys and pickles. It can be combined with a dash of jaggery to lend a sweet-sour taste to a dish as well.
Jackfruit, also known as phanas, grows in practically every Goan household and comes in two varieties: kapo (hard and fleshy) and rasal (soft and juicy). Raw jackfruit is typically used to make shaak (a vegetable preparation also known as bhaji). Gharyachi bhaji is a regular at meals in Hindu households. Kadgi gujjo, a traditional Konkani-style raw jackfruit masala dish, is eaten by the Goud Saraswat Brahmin community. However, given the unique, almost meaty, texture of the fruit, it is often a popular addition in non-vegetarian dishes as well. “Chacko, a jackfruit delicacy, is made with tender pre-ripe jackfruit. With a ripe jackfruit, semolina and coconut, one can make a cake known as gharyachyo dhonas as well,” says Awchat. Jackfruit is put to use extensively in other desserts too. Ponsa gharai is a payasam-like dish made with ripe jackfruit combined with jaggery, coconut and rice. Desserts like halwa and barfi are made with the boiled and mashed seeds of the fruit. Its seeds can be used in gravies too. “I remember my grandmother using jackfruit seeds in her pork dish,” reminisces Vaz. Chefs are also experimenting with jackfruit and coming up with dishes like jackfruit biryani and kebabs, which have a universal appeal.
While dishes like mutton Xacuti curry, pork vindaloo and Goan prawn curry may be the raison d’etre for people thronging Goa, clearly, there is more to Goa’s flavoursome cuisine. The state’s very own locally-grown fruits and vegetables are stirring up a lot of excitement in many gourmet kitchens and opening up a world of undiscovered tastes.
Mini Ribeiro is a freelancer