Goan Cooking: Pantry Essentials

The first step to making great Goan food that people will rave about: the right ingredients. The better the quality of the ingredients, the tastier and more authentic the result. The flavours of Goa are characterised by the use of locally made Goan vinegar and soaked red chillies. Sour and spicy is the winning combination,a trademark of this taste-bud tingling cuisine. Here is a list of some cupboard staples that will make a world of difference in creating this flavorsome balance. With my favourite ingredients, shortcuts and swaps you will be well on your way to creating flavour packed Goan dishes in your own kitchen. Here is a short list of some goan pantry staples.

Goan Par Boiled Rice (Ukdem Tandul)

This healthy rice variety is specially milled to leave distinctive red streaks. Its unique firm texture and nutty grains make it ideal served with fish and coconut milk based curries. This rice finds its raison d’etre as part of the traditional rice gruel called Pez or Canji , or the toddy leavened rice bread called Sannas

Coconuts
Goan food is celebration of this widespread local produce. The coconut oil is used for frying,the milk makes delicious curries and the grated coconut flesh flavors both savory and sweet dishes. 

Toddy Vinegar

Toddy vinegar is prepared from coconut sap known as toddy collected from the flower of the coconut tree. This traditional vinegar is the secret behind the characteristic sour taste of celebrated goan meat and fish recipes such as vindalho, sorpotel, recheado and balchao. It is also used as a pickling agent for dishes like fish mole etc.

Coconut Jaggery
This caramel colored, mollasses flavoured, unrefined sweetener made from coconut palm  has a smoky flavor and a rich aroma.Jaggerry is sold in  pyramid shaped  chunks and  is used in coconut-based sweets and to balance sweet and sour dishes.Unlike sugar, it is unrefined and unbleached, retaining all its nutrients.

Cashewnuts
Goa is famed for its flavourful cashewnuts, delicious and eaten plain, toasted and salted. Cashewnuts are used extensively in Goan sweet dishes and as a substitute for  almonds in the European inspired recipes like marzipan.
 
Dried Red Chillies

These were brought to Goa by the Portuguese from the Americas. Goa now has a variety of locally grown chilies, but the chili of choice today is the Kashmiri chili. The fiery red color it imparts to a dish disguises its mildness.

Kokum (Brindao or Bhinda)
Kokum is a dark purple colored fruit grown in abundance in Konkan region. The outer purple skin is sundried to make bhinda sol, and used in cooking as a souring agent. Sol Kadhi or Footi Kadhi are  extremely delicious and cooling beverages made using kokum as the star ingredient.
 
Lemon Berry  (Tefio / Teflam): These dried, acrid, lemon-flavored berries are used to add a distinctive flavour in curries with mackerel and the festive vegetable dish Khatkhatem.

The Goan Spice Box
Goan cooking generally involves liberal amounts of spices, too, giving dishes a  distinctive taste and aroma. The most commonly used include cumin, coriander, chilies,black pepper and turmeric.

Salted & Dried Fish

This monsoon staple in Goan kitchens is really an acquired taste, there is no escaping the pungent smell that engulfs your storage cupboard and kitchen. Dry fish and prawns make their way into various curries and dishes, my favourites being kismur and the spicy bombil fry.

Choricos ( Goan Sausage)
Chouricos are spicy pork sausages, which owe more than a passing debt to Portuguese culinary traditions. Goan sausages are prepared using cubes of pork marinated in salt, spices and feni. Once they have been made, the strings of sausages are dried in the sun and then hung above the fire where they are gradually smoked. Traditionally they are eaten during the monsoon, when fish is scarce. In preparation, they are soaked in water and then usually fried  and served with a hot sauce and rice.

Feni
Undoubtably Goa's favorite tipple: this is one of those things you absolutely love or detest..This Goan traditional liquor is made from the Cashew Apple or Coconut Sap that is fermented and distilled. A cupboard staple and famed elixir among grandmothers for common colds, dysentery,sore gums, mouth ulcers and the like. Feni is used by Goans in cooking pork dishes like sorpotel and choricos, a substitute for the wines used by our colonial chefs. Personally I would look at feni as the chef's secret treat, for all my labour in the kitchen:) My favorite way to have it: A shot of Feni infused with a green chilly and a slice of lime!


So there: some of the things that make this cuisine quintessentially Goan! So lets get stocked, because a full pantry makes a happy cook!