food recipe

Monday, 18 July 2011

Goan Recipes

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 12:11 AM PDT

Mum visited us a couple of weeks ago, cooked us up some Samarachi Kodi. For those who lived in Goa would know the significance of this meal, in the good old days Goa was shut during the monsoons, houses were stacked prior to the monsoons with dry prawns, dry fish, sausages to last till the end of the monsoons.

Then my Aunty Sunita from Moira came over and told us a little more of good old Goa in the monsoons how people bought rock salt, buy tamarind for the entire year as it was available on in april and may. Chillies too were stocked up on, the non spicy Aldona chillies for color and taste. The small red onions tied in bunches in the kitchen, that perhaps had a smoked effect.

Water pickles, feni, vinegar, all stored of course running out of feni was very common with an alcoholic in the house :) If you have some story to share of the good old days do post a comment!

This curry can be made with dry prawns and you can try experimenting with dry bombay ducks, todays Samarachi Kodi recipe is a dry prawn curry, perfect for the rainy season.

Main Samarachi Kodi Ingredients

1 Tin dry prawns
2 Big onions
1/2 Scraped coconut
1 Small Ball Tamarind
1 Tomato
Salt to taste

Samarachi Kodi Masala Ingredients:

1/2 Coconut
6 - 8 Kashmiri Chillies
1/2 Orange Flower
1/2 Daggad phool (Star Anise)
1/2 Teaspoon Mace (Javitri)
1 Teaspoon Turmeric powder
2 Pieces of Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Methi seeds
3 - 4 Pepper corns
6 Cloves
1 Small Onion
2 Teaspoon Corriander seeds
6 Flakes of Garlic
1 Inch Ginger
A pinch of Jeera

So now that you've got your ingredients ready lets start making our Samarachi Kodi. Roast the half scraped coconut with the small onion and haldi powder

While thats getting done, clean the dry prawns by removing their heads if there are any and soak. You also need to soak the small ball of tamarind in water.

When the coconut is roasted, roast all the masala ingredients and grind.

Getting your Samarachi Kodi Masala was relatively simple, the only thing is this recipe requires a few unique ingredients as compared to what we have used in our other Goan recipes so far.

Keep the Masala aside, chop the onions, tomato, ginger, your prawns should be well soaked by now.

Get your coconut milk ready, if you have been following our recipes you would know how to do that by now :)

Sauté the onions till slightly brown.

Add the ginger and the big tomato and continue to fry

Add the soaked dry prawns, don't add the water only the prawns.

Keep frying for a while.

Then add the Samarachi Kodi masala along with the Tamarind water.

Depending on how thick you want your curry add the coconut milk

To give it a little more tangy taste you can add some raw mango to the dish.

Remember you are already adding tamarind water so according to your taste buds.

So there you have it, your Samarachi Kodi should be ready in a bit.

Enjoy eating it with hot rice and pickle on a cold rainy day.

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Goan Recipes

Doce Bhaji

Posted: 26 Jan 2011 06:49 AM PST

Doce Bhaji or Doce Baji the lapsi from Goa, what every family should cook up for nursing mothers to nourish them and also put a smile on their face.

Apart from that, Doce Baji makes a very delicious tea time sweet. Delicious enough for the entire family to forget who it was originally cooked for. We have been blessed with a baby boy on the 23rd of December, and my parents with their third grand child :)

So lets take a look at how to cook up the Doce Bhaji for the entire family!

Doce Bhaji Ingredients:

250 Grams Broken Wheat
1 Coconut for Thick and Thin Coconut Milk
150 Grams or More Sugar
3 Tablespoons Ghee
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
3 - 4 Elaichi
Pinch of Salt

The Preparation of Doce Bhaji:

Doce Baji is fairly simple and doesn't take too much time and energy like some of the traditional Goan sweets. Hoping that you have the broken wheat ready, we didn't manage to get the wheat ground at the local mill as they weren't willing to grind only a kilo.

We managed to get a 250 grams packet of broken wheat for Rs 24. The first thing you do is wash it and soak it for around two to three hours so that it cooks faster.

Put your scrapped coconut in the blender to make your thick and thin coconut milk.

Just need to grind half the coconut with extra water for the thin milk and the remaining half with less water for the thick milk.

Then use a muslin cloth to filter the coconut pulp and squeeze the juice out.

Here's the thick and thin coconut milk, you can't make out the consistency in these pictures but in the coming steps you will be able to see the difference.

Put the broken wheat on the fire and add the thin coconut milk. Keep stirring the dish occasionally.

mix thin coconut milk with the doce bhaji

Grind the nutmeg for the powder if you don't have it ready, we make fresh nutmeg powder. Actually we try to make all the masala powders ourselves.

Open up the cardamom pods and crush the insides to gut your cardamom powder.

Once your doce bhaji looks like what it is in the picture you know its nearly done.

Add part of the thick coconut milk to the dish and get ready to add the other ingredients.

Just add a wee bit of the coconut milk, not necessary but this is how we did it.

Then the sugar, we have mentioned 150 Grams or more, this it totally dependent on your taste though. You can make it less as well if you like or more if you have a sweet tooth :)

Add a pinch or two of salt to the doce bhaji this again is as per taste!

Add the ghee to the doce bhaji!

As the ghee melts add the rest of the thick coconut milk and mix it well.

Add the cardamom and nutmeg powder to the dish and mix it up yet again.

Now bring it to a boil again, shouldn't take too long, but keep stirring it so it doesn't get burnt at the bottom.

Pour out the doce bhaji on grease proof paper to cool off and solidify and add some raisins or any other dry fruits you choose to decorate or add more substance to the dish.

Once it thickens it can be cut up into nice pieces or eaten whole and enjoyed.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Goan Recipes

Feijoada : Red Beans with Pork

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 11:02 AM PST

Feijoada is famous enough to have a wiki entry that states, Feijoada is a stew of beans with beef and pork, which is a typical Portuguese dish, also typical in Brazil, Angola and other former Portuguese colonies.

So yet again we have a Goan delicacy that has been handed down to us from the Portuguese, lets cook up some Goan Feijoada.

If you recollect that we had put up a simple recipe called Salted Pork up earlier. Our Feijoada utilizes the salted pork before its ready, so basically you can have two dishes on your table when you make Feijoada. The other option is to use goa sausages and beans to make an even easier Feijoada.

Feijoada Masala Ingredients:

4 Tables Spoons Coconut
1/2 Teaspoon Jeera
1/4 Teaspoon Methi Seeds
1 Table spoons Coriander Seeds
4 - 5 Flakes Garlic
2 Leveled Teaspoons Poppy Seeds or Khus Khus
4 - 5 Pepper Corns
4 - 5 Cloves
Small Ball of Tamarind

Feijoada Main Ingredients:

250 Grams Red Beans (Osanay from Goa, the beans have to be soaked overnight)

Ingredients used for Salted Pork:

500 Grams Pork
2 Onions
4 Kashmiri Chillies
4 Kokam can be cut into tiny pieces

Firstly go to through the Salted Pork recipe and cook it till the pork looks like what it is in the picture below and then keep it aside.

Here are the Osanay (pronounced as Osahndeh) beans, soaked overnight.

soak osanay red beans in water overnight

Let's just drain out the water and rinse the beans thoroughly.

Add the beans to your pressure cooker.

Add less water here if you plan on using coconut milk, if your adding water can add a little extra but remember your pressure cookers limitation.

Add salt to taste, this can be as per your need but not much you have plenty of time later.

Set your cooker on the fire, get on your pan and begin to fry the Feijoada spices to make the masala. Remember when you are frying, start with one ingredient at a time, put the oil first then the chillies and then the next and so on, you can skip the tamarind and garlic.

When thats done, add a spot of water and put it in a blender. Your beans should be done and you have your masala ready as well.

You can add the fejioada masala to the beans in a vessel your going to cook in.

In the next step you can add coconut milk instead of water to give it an even richer taste, we added water as the feijoada masala has coconut in it as well.