Goan Thali

Goa!! Just thinking about the place puts you into a “vacation state of mind” with memories of sun, sand, waves, gorgeous sun-sets and fabulous food!! This weekend as part of our weekend thali project, we cooked up a Goan Thali and also at the same time took a virtual mental vacation remembering all of our trysts with Goa!! One of the most memorable trips was of Vikram’s 19 hour drive to Goa with his friend Bhakta (who had a sprained foot!!) on a motor-bike!! After all, in those days, our entire generation attempted to imitate the Goa trip from the cult-classic movie “Dil Chahta Hai”!!

Goan food is known more for meat dishes, so we decided to make more of a non-vegetarian thali. This meant more cooking for VIkram and less for me and I for one was not complaining :-). Goan food has strong influences from Portuguese cuisine since Goa was a Portuguese colony for more than 450 years. We enjoyed cooking the recipes, noting how the Indian and Portuguese ingredients were melding together to evolve unique dishes that exploded with taste. For example, while we were not surprised by the heavy usage of coconut, we were surprised by the usage of vinegar and how well it complemented Indian spices. Before we dive deeper into the dishes we prepared, we do want to issue a disclaimer. This is the first time we have prepared a thali without consulting with any friend or family member for the menu. This thali has been prepared based on our research and our prior experience with Goan cuisine but it may not be the ideal combination of dishes. Honestly we may have been slightly biased to the dishes that we wanted to recreate and eat!!

Goan Tendli Masala (Link to recipe)

This was a very tasty preparation of Tendli (Ivy Gourd) in a semi-dry coconut gravy with strong notes from coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cinnamon. Highly recommend this recipe in case you are looking for an alternate way of preparing ivy gourd.

Goan Khatkhate (Link to recipe)

A trademark Goan vegetable stew with root vegetables and lentils - I was looking forward to recreating this dish at home. The incredible coconut based gravy infused with the flavors from kokum and coriander seeds made my day!

Quiabos Rechaedo (Link to recipe)

The word Rechaedo means stuffed in Portuguese. The Rechaedo masala is a red paste that is used to stuff fish and vegetables, in this case Okra. The vinegar used in the paste along with Indian spices like Cumin, Cinnamon and peppercorns truly set this dish apart. Definitely not the usual “bharwa bhindi” recipe!

Ukadem Xitt\Goan Boiled Rice (Link to recipe)

Yes - it’s just rice! But then again it’s not. The traditional Goan rice is par-boiled and is unpolished with a reddish twinge to it. While we couldn’t find the authentic Goan rice, we did use par-boiled rice for the meal and made it as per the recipe linked above.

Goan Poee (Link to recipe)

The Goan Poee is a wheat bread that is almost like the Greek\Lebanese Pita bread. Our first attempt at making this bread at home tasted soft but looked nothing like the original Poee we have eaten in Goa. (we may have gone a bit over-board with the buck-wheat. Oh well - I guess our version is at least healthier :-))

Chicken Cafreal (Link to recipe)

This is a dish that has again been influenced by Portuguese cuisine. The Cilantro based sauce used in this dish is very similar to the Piri Piri Chicken that has it’s roots in Portugal and Africa. The secret behind this dish is the marination that should be done for atleast 4-6 hours. For folks who are interested, Vikram highly recommends the Foodsaver Vaccuum Sealer since he has observed that this tool helps with better marination and also keeps the meat fresh longer. (Note - This is not a sponsored tip).

Chicken Xacuti (Link to recipe)

A complex dish that involved making a freshly roasted and ground spice powder that included coconut and different spices, grinding a masala paste with red chillies soaked in vinegar and finally sauteing it all together with the chicken - this was a true labor of intent by Vikram - an intent to recreate the taste of Goa at our home.

Fish Recheado (Link to recipe)

No Goan thali is complete without fried fish in it. While the more popular version of Goan fried fish is the Rava Fried Fish, Vikram decided to marinate the fish with the Recheado sauce that was used for the Okra above and made the Fish Recheado instead.

We had true intentions to cook Bibinca - the iconic multi-layered dessert from Goa which involves baking each layer and then adding on the next layer (with a total of 7 to 16 layers). Unfortunately, our vacation state of mind got in the way since we ended up spending way too much time looking back at our vacation pictures from Goa and reminiscing about all of our Goa experiences with and without each other. We will need to attempt this dish some other time.

While we have been stuck working and living at home for months due to the pandemic, this weekend thali project has been our outlet to stretch our wings a little bit and venture into the unknown. This weekend, it also brought us the benefit of a virtual vacation, taking us back to the sun-soaked palm beaches, lazy afternoons, glorious sunsets and of course amazing Goan food!