Goan cuisine, like the land itself, has many flavors and tastes with its vast treasure trove of culinary delicacies. Here are some recipes of famous and easy-to-make dishes thatll help you recreate the flavors of Goa in your own kitchen.
Prawn Balchao
Ingredients
1 kg small- to medium-sized prawns, cleaned and deveined 4 tbsp vegetable/canola/sunflower oil 2 large onions, finely chopped 3 large tomatoes, finely chopped 2 tbsp garlic paste 1 tbsp ginger paste 10-12 dry red chilies 1 tbsp cumin seeds 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 inch stick of cinnamon 8-10 cloves 2 tbsp sugar ½ cup vinegar Salt to taste
Preparation
Put the prawns in a large bowl and sprinkle some salt over them. Keep aside. Roast the dry red chilies, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cloves, and cinnamon till they begin to release their aroma. Take off from the fire and set aside to cool. Grind the ginger, garlic, and roasted spices into a smooth paste using the vinegar. Heat the oil on a medium flame in a wok-style pan.
Add the prawns and stir fry till opaque. Remove from the pan and keep aside. In the same pan, fry the onions till light brown. Add the tomato and fry till soft.
Now add the spice-vinegar paste, sugar, and salt to taste and fry till the oil begins to separate from the masala.
Add the prawns to this masala and mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Serve with piping hot, plain boiled rice.
Bebinca
Ingredients
Ό cup refined flour 10 egg yolks 1 cup sugar Ό cup coconut milk 1 tsp nutmeg powder Ό cup butter
Preparation Mix the coconut milk, flour, sugar, nutmeg and the egg yolks and make a batter. Grease an oven-proof dish with a spoonful of melted butter, pour 5 tbsp of batter into the dish, and spread evenly. Bake till golden brown. Spread another spoonful of butter and pour another 5 tbsp of batter over it and spread evenly. Bake and repeat this until all the batter is used up. Turn out the Bebinca onto a wire rack. Cool and cut into slices before serving.
1-inch piece ginger A little tamarind 10 red chillies Little turmeric 6 cloves garlic 3 onions (sliced) Salt to taste
Method Cut the Mutton into convenient pieces. Extract juice from half coconut and keep aside. Grate the other half of the coconut. Fry the grated coconut, cumin seed and coriander and set aside. Fry one onion and mix with the fried masala Grind the rest of the spices with the fried masala. Fry the remaining 2 sliced onions in ghee until brown and add the meat and continue frying till brown. Add a cup of water and cook till the water dries. Now add ground masala with a little water and cook further for 10 minutes. Add the coconut juice, a cup of water, tamarind juice and salt to taste and simmer till gravy thickens.
4-5 crabs (500 gms) 10 gms Kashmiri red chillies 10 gms coriander Few flakes of garlic a pinch of cumin seeds 250 gms onions 115 gms tomatoes
30 ml oil Little turmeric ½ ginger A small ball tamarind ½ cinnamon 100 gms coconut Salt to taste
Method Wash crabs and cut each into 4 pieces or as desired. Grind spices with coconut to a fine paste. Heat oil and fry the ground masala and crab pieces. Add chopped tomatoes and salt and cook on slow fire. When crab is cooked , add tamarind water and cook for 15-20 minutes
1 kg Mutton 7 cloves 1 large piece cinnamon 3 onions (sliced) 5 green chillis (sliced) 1 ginger (sliced) 1 tbsp vinegar
½ kg potatoes 8 red chillies 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp mustard 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp turmeric 10 peppercorns
Method Cut the mutton and wash. Place the mutton in a vessel with all the ground masala and the cloves and cinnamon. Add salt and vinegar and cook adding just sufficient water to allow the meat to cook. When the meat is almost ready add the sliced ginger, chillies, onions and garlic.
1 kg promfret or any other fish Grind to paste 1 grated coconut 1-heaped tsp cumin 4 dry red chillies ½ tsp turmeric powder
Crush together 3-4 chillies 1 larger chopped onion Ύ tamarind water (made with lime-sized ½ inch piece ginger ball of tamarind ) Salt to taste
Method Mix the masala paste and the crushed masala together in a pan and cook, adding water whenever necessary, For about 20 minutes. Then add the cleaned and cut fish to which salt has been added and stimmer till fish is cooked.
Note In the case of prawns use 1 kg or ½ kg cleaned and shelled prawns.
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