Goa’s lesser-known desserts and sweets you need to find out about

The world of Goan sweets is various, scrumptious, and infrequently seasonal. In Goan houses, there’s an outdated, dying follow of consuming a candy — sometimes made with coconut and madachem godd (black palm jaggery) — within the month of August. This coconut jaggery combination or godd chunn finds its method into many Goan sweets ready throughout monsoon, from the crepe-like alle belle to the turmeric leaf steamed patoli.

Native vegatables and fruits, apart from the ever present coconut and cashew nuts, discover their method into many scrumptious choices. Whereas bebinca grabs the headlines, and most lately a GI tag, there are lots of different sweets that deserve recognition.

Listed below are only a handful of them.

Dedos de Dama

It’s a lollipop in contrast to another. The candy actually interprets to ‘woman fingers’ and is a cylindrical-shaped caramel sweet encasing a chewy marzipan-like combination. This was as soon as a candy discovered primarily at Goan weddings.

Crescy Baptista, co-founder, The Goan Kitchen, remembers wanting ahead to those lollipops as a baby, and ready in queue at buffet strains at weddings to eat them. “I’ve at all times related them to weddings,” she says. Baptista discovered to make this candy from her mother-in-law. Now, her dedos de dama is a should in any respect The Goan Kitchen’s sit-down lunches and catering occasions. “This stays a festive candy as a result of it’s tedious to make, so you’ll not discover it at many locations,” provides Baptista.

To make Dedos de Dama, cashew nuts, coconut, and sugar are blended right into a dough, formed like fingers, placed on a stick, and rolled in caramel. To make sure the syrup dries evenly and to maintain the stick upright, individuals would stick this candy into fruits like pineapple or watermelon. This stick is gaily embellished with frilly wisps of paper.

Patoleo

Monsoon is when gardens are lush with turmeric leaves, that are essential for one primary candy — patoleo (patoli singular). This candy dish is made with rice flour paste full of a coconut-jaggery combination and steamed inside turmeric leaves.

Patoli is widespread in August, which is the start of the harvest season. In some villages, individuals have a good time the harvest pageant with sweets utilizing rice flour and jaggery, like patoleo. It’s also made on the feast of the Assumption of Mary (on August 15). Hindus eat it throughout Nag Panchami, and Ganesh Chaturthi.

The recipe for the candy varies: some use palm jaggery, others, sugarcane; some add boiled chana dal; some use a combination of rice flour and wheat flour.

The same candy is dhonne/holle. It’s largely made at residence the place the identical stuffing is added to jackfruit leaves, that are formed like a cone and held collectively by toothpicks. 

Bolo Sans Rival

Within the olden days, the standing of a household was judged by the sweets they laid out at their weddings. One among these sweets was Bolo Sans Rival or Bolo Sem Rival — bolo means cake (Portuguese) and sans rival is French for with out rival.

Sans Rival is a layered cake made with egg whites, cashew, and sugar. Usually, it has a macaron-like layer of egg whites, cashew nuts, vanilla essence and sugar, sandwiched with buttercream. Initially made with almonds, Goans changed them with cheaper and extra obtainable cashew nuts.

Indira Borges, founding father of I-Bakes, remembers consuming this cake solely at weddings. “Individuals would use almond essence as a substitute of almonds, and I bear in mind it being very candy.” Borges discovered herself gravitating in the direction of the cake as a way of utilizing up her leftover egg whites after making bebinca. “My brother instructed sans rival. I went and discovered the recipe from a woman in Raia.” Borges Sans Rival is heavy on the cashew nuts, however has a pleasant chewy chunk to it.

Tavsali

One other seasonal monsoon vegetable making its method onto Goan plates is tavshi — fats, rectangular, yellowish-green cucumbers. This tavshi is used to make tavsali, a cucumber cake. This eggless steamed cake has grated cucumber, coarse rava (semolina), jaggery and coconut. Tavshe have numerous water content material, making the resultant cake moist and fluffy.

“You roast the rava with ghee, add grated cucumber, a bit water, jaggery, grated coconut, and cashew nuts. I add turmeric leaf as a result of it imparts a beautiful flavour and aroma,” says Shubhra Shankwalker, residence prepare dinner and founding father of catering enterprise Aai’s. As soon as the combination is thick, she steams it on a banana leaf. The resultant cake is tender, moist, and refreshing, with out being cloyingly candy.

Serradura

This pudding is believed to have entered Goa through the Portuguese from Macau. A layered dessert, served in a glass, it has crushed biscuits (generally blended with nuts) and sweetened whipped cream. Some name it ‘sawdust pudding’ due to its look and the feel of the biscuits.

At his newly launched Goan restaurant, Segundo Bairro, Carmo Barretto serves serradura in a glass jar. “It is a widespread dessert of Portuguese origin that’s simple to make,” he says. “The ability lies in getting the precise stability of condensed milk [Milkmaid] and cream, so it’s not too candy. We layer ours with crushed Marie digestive biscuits.”

Toucinho do Céu

Toucinho do Céu is a wealthy, decadent almond cake. It interprets to ‘bacon from heaven’ as a result of older recipes would use pork lard for flavouring.

“It is without doubt one of the most conventional sweetsin Portugal and its origin is within the convents. Egg whites was used for starching the clothes utilized by clergymen and nuns. The excess egg yolks impressed the nuns to create scrumptious sweets, like this,” says Marlene de Noronha Meneses, founding father of runs Marlene’s Tasty Treats.

She got here throughout this dish in 2006 in Lisbon at her aunt’s place. Marleneis one of many few (if not the one individual) making this dessert in Goa. She doesn’t use lard within the recipe, and serves the cake in cupcake type.

Shirvolyo/ Shevyo

Shirvolyo are rice noodles, sometimes eaten with sweetened coconut milk, or god chunn (candy grated coconut).

Shubhra Shankwalker of Aai’s does a sit-down meal at her farm and serves rossantle sheviyo for dessert. To make it, rice is soaked in a single day, floor right into a batter and cooked until it turns into a ‘dough’. The dough is formed into cylindrical lumps, steamed, and handed by way of a machine referred to as shevgo to create the noodle strands.“It’s eaten with ross [sweetened coconut milk] or with coconut and jaggery for many who desire it dry,” says Shankwalker. Apparently, some individuals additionally add bananas to sweeten the ross. It’s a dish finest eaten scorching.