Goan with the grind

The cuisine from Goa has taken tenets from the Portuguese, added flavour from Saraswat cuisine and the Muslim Rule. What you get in entirety is a wholesome vista of ingredients and tastes that are spiced to perfection. The Portuguese brought with them potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, guavas, cashews and meats.

The chilli pepper is the most important Goan ingredient that was introduced by the Portuguese. Even meats like beef and pork have became a staple of the Catholic converts thanks to Vasco Da Gama’s forays. Yet, the Hindu cuisine thanks to the Saraswat Brahmins was wholesome vegetarian fare, with kokum and jaggery. Here are some recipes that are inherent to a Goan household, and brings the spice route full circle, with the grinding stone as its main stay.

— The writer is an expert on Goan cuisine, a housewife and a storehouse of knowledge when it comes to cooking all kinds of cuisine.

Beef or Pork Assado (roast pork)

Ingredients
1 kg pork, preferably hind legs with a thin layer of fat or beef chuck
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tsp turmeric, cumin, chilly powder, cinnamon, cloves
2 medium sized onions
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 litre beef stock
Salt to taste.

Ingredients
Prick the meat all over, and rub in spices with vinegar. Leave to marinate overnight or atleast two hours. Add more or less spices according to taste. Fry onions (in a pot where the piece of meat will fit securely) till translucent. Remove onions, add meat and brown on high fire from all sides. Remove meat, add onions again, then place piece of meat with the fat side up, on top of the onions.

Add stock till it comes up to 1/2 the level of the meat. Cook on slow fire, turning once for 15 minutes and then placing it back in the original position. Cook till meat is tender around 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Keep adding stock and water. Once tender, remove meat and reduce gravy. Check salt, add more water and reduce again. Repeat a couple of times till the onions starts to brake up and caramalise. Slice the meat fine, and spread with reduced thick onion gravy.

Recheado masala

Ingredients
100 gm dry red chillies; 1 tbsp cumin seeds; 25 peppercorns; 10 cloves; 2 inch cinnamon sticks
10 pods garlic; 2-inch piece ginger, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder 2 tsps tamarind;
1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp sugar

Method

Grind chillies with spices fine in a blender with enough vinegar to make a paste.
After the paste is made, fry it in oil for five minutes, to roast it, then when cool, bottle it for use. Refrigerate. Use as a marinade for seafood and meats.

Fish Caldeen

Ingredients

1/2 kilo fish slices (pomfret or king fish)
1 grated coconut
1 tbsp raw red rice
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
10 peppercorns
1 inch piece ginger
4 garlic cloves
6 green chilies long thin slices
2 chopped onions
2 chopped tomatoes, salt, sugar and vinegar to taste

Method

Blend coconut with dry spices and raw rice, which has been soaked in hot water, and extract thick juice. Grind again, extract thin juice. Saute chopped onion in a little oil until brown add tomatoes, slit green chilies. Add thin juice, bring to boil, cook for five minutes, then add thick juice, bring to boil again, add salt, sugar and 1 tsp vinegar. Finally, add fish slices that should be lightly fried first.Cook till fish is done. Serve with boiled rice.

Mutton/chicken Xacuti

Ingredients
1 kg mutton or chicken, cut into curry pieces
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp black pepper seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
2 pods cardamom
A dash of nutmeg
1 inch piece ginger
1 piece star anise
1/2 mace flower
6-7 pods garlic
12 dried red Kashmiri chilies
1/2 grated coconut
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 small ball of tamarind soaked in a little hot water, and the juice extracted from it.

Method

In a little oil, fry spices except pepper corns, ginger and turmeric. (Starting with kashmiri chilies and garlic, add poppy seeds last). Remove from pan, and put in a blender including the ginger, turmeric and pepper corns. Add grated coconut to the pan without oil. When half-cooked, reduce heat to low and add a little oil and stir till brown. Add roasted coconut to blender, and a little water and blend everything together. Blend till smooth. Add meat pieces to pan and cook on high fire for a few minutes to seal in juices. Add ground masala and the tamarind water and cook on a slow fire till meat is tender.

Tips

Goan food must be cooked on slow fire only. Onions must be fried slowly to retain their moisture and give it a caramelised touch.
All spices need to ground to a fine paste.