Dose Bhaji (Broken wheat pudding)

The name 'doce bhaji' literally means a combination of something sweet and something savoury. Put simply, it is a broken wheat pudding made using ingredients readily available in almost any Goan kitchen - wheat, coconut milk, sugar, clarified butter (ghee) and flavourings. This traditional tea time sweet dish is excellent for lactating mothers and children because of its strengthening properties. The uninitiated could easily mistake a plate of doce bhaji for a halwa or a sheera, but take a bite of it and the play of textures on your palette will definitely make you want to reach out for one more piece.

Ingredients

1 cup Broken Wheat

2 cups thick Coconut milk

1-1 1/2 cups thin coconut milk

2-3 tbsps Ghee

3/4 dark coconut jaggery

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp Cardamom powder

¼ cup chopped Cashewnuts/Almonds

¼ cup Raisins

Salt to taste

Method

Wash and soak the broken wheat in in water for 3-4 hours to reduce cooking time.Drain the broken wheat and add it to a heavy bottom utensil along with the thin coconut milk and salt cook on a medium flame, stirring constantly. Once the wheat is almost cooked, add the thick coconut milk,jaggery, sugar and continue cooking. Finally add the cardamom powder, nuts, raisins and ghee. Keep stirring till it absorbs all the moisture. Remove it from the flame and transfer it to individual serving dishes or a greased platter of your choice. When cooled and set you can cut it into squares to serve if you prefer. Make sure you refrigerate leftovers (if you have any, I didnt) as docebhaji spoils easily because of the coconut in the recipe.

 

Photo Credit: Lloyd Vas

Pineapple Sheera

Ingredients

1 cup semolina(rava)
2 cups milk

1/2-1 cup water (vary the amount based on how firm or soft you want the sheera to be)
1/4 cup pure ghee
1/3 -1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chopped pineapple (can be substituted with mango, or skipped altogether)
8-10 chopped cashews

20 raisins
1/2 tsp clove powder/ elaichi powder

1 pinch kesar

Salt to taste

Method

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and roast the rava for about 5 minutes on low heat Add the ghee and fry some more. When rava turns to golden brown remove from pan and keep aside. Heat the milk,water,kesar,salt and add the roasted rava in a thin stream,stirring continuosly and then cover and cook on low flame , till milk is absorbed. Now add the sugar and pineapple and finally the nuts,raisins and clove/elaichi powder. Cook for another 3-4 minutes till done and and turn off the heat. This Goan sweet is delicious had with a steaming cup of tea.

Goan Beef Cutlet

It’s a snack. But it could also be a whole meal on its own. The Goan cutlet is essentially a generous slice of beef, well marinated vinegar and goan marinade and crumb fried . The ingredients for the marinade are a matter of choice and taste. But they can make all the difference between a passable cutlet and a great cutlet (costeleta in Portuguese), as does the quality of the beef. The slice of meat then gets an egg wash before it is dusted in bread crumbs (or semolina) and fried. Served with Goan bread poie/ pao, a little gravy or ketchup and some salad, the cutlet-pao (also available in a chicken variant) is currently Goa’s most popular street food.

The costeleta is definitely of Portuguese origin. But the cutlet-pao, its local adaption, is as Goan as the chourice pao or the ross omelette.  They are dished out by the dozens from street carts that sell cutlet-pao, sausage-bread, pork chops and beef chilly fry among other takeaways, and have created a street food culture here that would be hard to beat in quality and price

Ingredients

1 kg thinly sliced Beef 

 Marinade:

1 small bunch Coriander

6-8 Green Chillies

12 to 14 cloves Garlic

½ inch Ginger

1 ball Tamarind

2 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

2 tsp Pepper Corns

2 inch Cinnamon

8-10 Cloves

3 to 4 tbsp Vinegar

½ tsp Sugar

Salt to taste

2 Eggs

Semolina to coat cutlets

Oil for frying

Wash the meat and tenderize it using a meat mallet. Place a piece of steak between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and use a meat mallet to pound it out to about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat with the rest of the steaks. Apply salt and vinegar and mix well. Grind all the other ingredients listed under marinade to a fine paste and apply the paste to the meat and marinate for 5 to 6 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

After the meat is marinated add 2 whipped eggs and mix well. Coat each meat slice with the semolina and keep aside. Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a large cast-iron skillet until hot  and fry the cutlets in batches for about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, or until well browned. Remove and drain any excess oil with a paper towel-lined plate. Serve hot in a poie/pav with a salad.

Photo Credit: Lloyd Vas