Churmo/Goan Churmo Sweet

You might heard or had Churma, one of the popular sweet dish prepared either with crushed baatis or rotis with ghee and jaggery but about Churmo? you may wonder na. Even when i crossed this dish while googling i was very much surprised to see this Goan sweet. Obviously i was very curious to try this dish at home. And bookmarked immediately from Pooja's Space. Pooja shares many delicious Goan delicacies with catchy clicks. Whenever i feel like cooking a different Goan or Konkani style of dish, i cant think more than going through her space. And this churmo is also from her space. She says that Goan Hindus have a tradition to send a sweet baskets to their married daughters during festivals like Diwali and Ganesh chathurthi. And this Sweet baskets have varieties of laddoos,pedhas, karanjis and chivdas etc. One among those sweets, a mildy spicy Churmo also have its own place.

Goan Sangacho Ross/Goan Drumstick Curry

You might have noticed that am cooking from Goan cuisine for this week's blogging marathon. Yes my theme for this week is Regional cuisine from a country. Though many regional cuisine do exists, i couldnt resist to go with Goan cuisine. This cuisine is particularly very interesting to explore as most of their traditional dishes are influenced by the Portuguese cuisine. Seafoods have their own place in Goan cuisine, however you can still find some aromatic vegetarian curries. While googling, i have crossed couple of delicious vegetarian and vegan dishes from this cuisine. Even i was surprised to see some dishes are seriously very simple to dish out with pantry friendly ingredients. Obviously i picked an aromatic curry from Pooja's space which is an easy breezy curry to cook and serve with rice and papads. Flavored with a special masala paste, this curry is also prepared with cooked dal.

Alle Belle/Goan Pancakes

Though we finished with our April month's mega blogging marathon, we are back to our usual 3 days of blogging marathon which kick starts from today. And am taking you all to a beautiful Indian region  'Goa' which have its coastal region known as the Konkan. Its is bounded by Maharashtra in North and Karnataka to east and south, and Arabian sea on its western coast.I had an immense chance to visit this coastal region long back during our Indian trip. Goan cuisine is a fabulous cuisine with many delicious dishes which is very much influenced by the Portuguese cuisine. I picked Regional cuisine of a country as theme for this week's blogging marathon, hence am going to post three interesting Goan traditional dishes.

No Onion No Garlic Tomato Saar/Goan Tomato Curry

While i was looking for something simple, yet a comforting food with tomatoes, i crossed this ultimate Tomato saar at Pooja's Space. This dish is one of popular Goan vegetarian curry which is often cooked in most of the Goan families. This curry is a simple dish which is completely free from onions and garlics. Obviously if you dont eat onions and garlic or else if you follow a strict diet and you cant eat onions or garlic, this tomato curry will definitely please your tastebuds. This dish is an easy dish with simple spices in it. The author of this recipe says that many versions of this tomato saar exists, she also explained that coconut is also added in this saar dish, however she didnt added apart from cumin seeds, coriander seeds and red chillies in this dish to bring the flavor. Obviously i followed her dish completely as she went for,seriously everyone at home enjoyed this dish thoroughly with rice. If you are looking for a comforting meal, dont forget to give a try to this simple but yet a delicious curry.

Sorak - Goan Special

Goan , a seashore land situated in the West coast of India.Goa have a strong influence of both Portuguese and Indian culture together, this is very much reflected in their cuisine.The cuisine of Goa can be divided into two cuisine, one is the Goan Hindu cuisine which goes for lentils,vegetables etc, onion and garlic are not used much in this cuisine,also they use less spices and very little oil,while the other one  is Goan Catholic cuisine very much influenced by the Portuguese culture though this cuisine is a combination of Konkani,South Indian, Portuguese, British and Saraswat cuisines.Obviously the food culture of Goa is a happy union of both East and west India. Since Goa is blessed abundantly with coconut tress, they cook their food mostly with coconut thus the extensive use of coconut in their cuisine. Coconut oil and coconut mlk is very much used in their cuisine specially for making their non vegetarian dishes.

For my today's post for Goa, i chosed to cook this simple and fingerlicking curry from Goan Catholic cuisine which is cooked quite often during the monsoon season in Goa. This dish is quite easy to prepare but its tastes simply awesome when served along with rice or Goan famous Sannas, steamed cooked rice cakes. I cooked this Sorak from here, and we loved it with rice.If you want to make some spicy simple curry, just give a try to this bright, eye pleasing Sorak curry from Goan cuisine.

Goan Dal/Toi

For the past three days, the weather is getting too worst here, either its rainy or else its too chilled. No matter how the weather is, we are enjoying even this chilled weather with some comforting foods. As you know, am running my second week of blogging marathon and today is the final day.As i chosed Goan cuisine as this week's theme, i really want to finish my last day of this second week's blogging marathon with a simple,flavourful and super comforting dal from Goa.

This dal can be prepared with many other veggies and i picked this recipe from Dassana's Veg Recipes of India. This dal gets ready very much easily with a wonderful coconut flavour. If you are bored of our usual dal dishes,do give a try this fingerlicking comforting food. A simple coconut paste with onions,cumins and garlic cloves gives a fantabulous flavour to this dal. We loved it very much and am sure you guys will love it too.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

1cup Moongdal
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1no Tomato
Salt
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
2no Dry red chillies
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
Coconut oil
Coriander leaves (chopped)

To grind: 
2tbsp Coconut
2nos Shallots
2nos Garlic cloves
1/2tsp Cumin seeds

Pressure cook the dal with enough water,salt and turmeric powder for 3hisses

Meanwhile grind the ingredients given under the list to grind as fine paste.

Once the pressure releases from the cooker, add the grounded paste and chopped tomatoes.

Add enough water and bring it to boil until the tomatoes gets well cooked.

Heat enough coconut oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter, add the cumin seeds,red chillis,asafoetida powder and fry.

Add this tempered spices,chopped coriander leaves to the cooking dal and put off the stove.

Serve with rice and papads.

Doce Bhaji/Goan Lapsi

My culinary journey towards Goa goes for an another wonderful sweet dish called doce bhaji, this dish sounds like the younger sister of the famous Gujarati lapsi, a broken wheat pudding, i crossed this goan version at Goan Food Recipes and i tried it few days back. This Goan lapsi is an excellent tea time snack and also the author of Goan food recipes says that every family will cook this dish to serve the nursing moms to nourish them. But watever, since this dish goes for coconut milk,this lapsi tastes fantabulous.

Nutmeg and cardamom powder gives a wonderful aroma to this delicious Lapsi. This doce bhaji goes for simple cooking porcess and its take less time when compared to the other traditional Goan sweets. Wheat rava you are using for making this lapsi have to be soaked for two or three hours so that they gets cooked faster than the usual lapsi. Goan cuisine is well known for their coconut based dishes,obviously this lapsi is completely cooked with coconut milk.You can use very well the canned coconut milk but i went for freshly squeezed coconut milk for making this lapsi.This is my second post for this week's blogging marathon coz i chosed Goan cuisine as this week's theme.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

1/2cup Broken bulgar wheat
1cup Thick coconut milk
1cup Thin coconut milk
2tbsps Ghee
1/2cup Sugar
1/2tsp Nutmeg powder
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
pinch Salt

Soak the broken wheat in water for three hours.

Meanwhile grind the grated coconut and prepare the coconut milk.

Take the soaked and washed borken wheat in a vessel with the thin coconut milk and cook in medium flame.

Once the doce bhaji gets half cooked, add the thick coconut milk,sugar and cook again in medium flame until they get well cooked.

Finally add the salt,nutmeg powder,cardamom powderand ghee,cook again until the doce bhaji gets well cooked and turns thick.

Put off the stove, you either transfer this doce bhaji to a plate lined with a baking sheet or serve them in a bowl.

Goan Egg Drop Curry

As usual, today am starting again the famous three days of blogging marathon,for this week's theme i chosed Goan Cuisine. Goa,a beautiful touristic place with wonderful beaches and historical places, this cuisine is well influenced by Portuguese cuisine and obviously goan cuisine is not complete without seafoods, i had a chance to visit this wonderful place few years back,unfortunately i wasnt a foodie blogger that time else i would have clicked all the delicious foods i have eaten there,better not late na thats why i chosed this theme for this week and cooked few delicious dish from this cuisine.

Coming to this egg drop curry,i picked it from a beautiful space Goan Food Recipes, with stepwise and many more traditional Goan dishes,this space is a treasure in case if you want to give a try to Goan foods.Since i searched something with eggs, this egg drop curry caught immediately my eyes and i tried them few days back for our lunch to serve along with some rotis. Trust me, this curry was simply fantabulous, flavourful and mildly spicy.You can also serve this curry along with rice eventhough my choice goes obviously for rotis as this curry will get thickens once the eggs gets cooked.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

3-4nos Eggs
1no Onion (big & chopped finely)
1no Tomato (chopped)
4nos Garlic cloves (chopped)
1/2cup Coconut milk
Oil
Few coriander leaves (chopped)

To grind:
6nos Kashmiri chillies
2tsp Coriander seeds
1tsp Cumin seeds
5tbsp Grated coconut
1no Tamarind(blueberry size)
3nos Garlic cloves
1/4tsp Turmeric powder

Grind all the ingredients given under the list to grind as fine paste with enough water.

Heat oil in a pan, add the onions,garlic cloves and fry until the onions turns transculent,add the chopped tomatoes and cook for few more minutes.

Now add the grounded paste and cook in simmer with salt..

Add a cup of water to the mixer and clean the masala and pour the water to the cooking masala..Bring it to boil.

Now break the egg and pour gently to the boiling gravy,drop the eggs one by one and cook in simmer.

Finally add the coconut milk and tilt the curry without breaking the eggs..

Cook for few more minutes and put off the stove.

Add the coriander leaves and serve hot.

Baath Cake - Goan Semolina & Coconut Cake~~My Guest Post for Priya

Guest posting, love the friendship behind this. This baath cake is my 8th guest post i prepared specially for one of my blogger buddy aka one of my virtual sister Priya of  Cook Like Priya.

Christmas is one of the festival we never failed to celebrate here, the chilled weather of december gives a wonderful festive mood and every year we wait eagerly for this festival.

When Priya asked me something christmassy, initially i want to make a christmas special bread from Europe. Finally after many hesitation,i went for an Indian christmas cake.I usually bake the famous plum cake,somehow i dont want to reproduce the same for this guest post. I know Goan makes many traditional christmas special bakes every year and Baath cake is among them.

Coming to this Baath cake,this cake is prepared with freshly grated coconut and semolina, with less butter this cake goes for an easy breezy preparation. With a wonderful texture,this cake tastes fabulous and melt in mouth.Goans prepared this cake traditionally in clay oven for every christmas and definitely this cake have its own place in every home during christmas.

Even blogging is a virtual world, am blessed to get a decent number of wonderful friends.I can say that Priya R of Cook Like Priya is one among them, she is a very friendly food blogger, fabulous photographer. I started chitchatting with her after we joined a monthly baking event.She shares wonderful traditional dishes to mindblowing bakes with her own touch,eventhough i have numerous favourites in her space my recent favourite post of her is this Choco Beet Cake.


3 nos Eggs
1 cup Semolina (fine quality)
2 cups Grated fresh coconut
1+1/2 cups Sugar
3 tbsp All purpose flour
1 tbsp Corn flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking powder
3 tbsp Butter (room temperature)
1 tbsp Vanilla essence
1/2 cup Warm water
Few dry fruits

Beat the eggs till they turns fluffy and add the butter to it,beat again for few minutes.

Grind the grated coconut with warm water to make a thick coarse paste.

In an another bowl, take the semolina,all purpose flour,baking powder,cornflour,salt and sugar and mix well.

Now add the grounded coarse coconut paste,beaten eggs gradually to the dry ingredients.Mix everything well with a spatula.

Cover it and keep the above mixture for 8 hours in room temperature (if the climate is chilled) or over night for best results.

If the climate is hot, cover this cake batter and keep in fridge for 8 hours or overnight, remove an hour earlier to bring it at room temperature before baking. Finally add the vanilla essence and give a stir.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Transfer the cake batter to a well greased round or square mold. Top it with dry fruits. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Your Baath Cake is ready.


Check Priya's space for my guest post

If you want something different for your christmas celebration this year, dont hesitate a second to give a try to this fabulous cake.

Chicken Cafreal

Hope u guys had a wonderful new year eve, we had a wonderful time and still i feel so lazy to cook and eat, but i was already missing my favourite blogsphere and could nt stop myself to sit in front of my system to share this delicious Goan dish called Chicken cafreal, this chicken cafreal tastes like tandoori chicken but it looks green in colour coz of the coriander leaves used in this dish, this chicken cafreal tastes marvellous when served as an appetiziers or as a side dish for any sort of rice dishes..Its definitely a delicious dish to try and taste..Thanks again to Clyde for sharing this yummy chicken cafreal..Sending this irresistible dish to Flavors of Goa guest hosted by Denny,event by Nayna..



1/2kg Chicken (boneless chunks)

Cafreal Masala:
1cup Coriander leaves
5nos Green chillies
1tbsp Ginger (chopped)
5nos Garlic cloves
1tsp Poppy seeds
5nos Peppercorns
1no Cinnamon stick
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Tamarind paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
3nos Cloves

Grind all the ingredients given under list for cafreal masala as a fine paste..Clean the chicken chunks and apply the grounded cafreal paste to the cleaned chicken chunks and keep overnite in fridge..The longer you store this marinated chicken chunks, turned them more tasty and yummy..Shallow fry this marinated chicken chunks  and cook in slow fire until they turns crispy and well cooked..Serve along with any sauces or salads..

Chicken Xacuti/Shakuti

Chicken Xacuti is pronounced actually as shakuti, quite a famous dish in Goan cuisine, since a long i wanted to try this delicious Goan chicken gravy and few days back i got an opportunity to prepare them at home, also i found out this delicious chicken dish from here..Clyde, the owner of this fabulous Goan recipes site,says that this word xacuti is most probably derived from the word chacuti which is portuguese, also says that portuguese chacuti looks brownish in colour when compared with the red goan xacuti all coz of kashimiri red chillies used in this dish..Am happy to try and taste this dish, they tastes super delicious along with rice and rotis..I have made few changes as per my tastebuds, also sauteed onions before cooking the chicken which the original recipe doesnt go for..Sending this delicious xacuti to Nayna's Flavors of Goa guest hosted by Denny..



1kg Chicken (cut as medium size)
1no Onion (chopped)
1/4tsp Nutmeg powder
Few potatoes (cubed)

For Xacuti masala:
6nos Kashmiri red chillies
1/2cup Grated coconut
4nos Cloves
1tsp Turmeric powder
10nos Peppercorns
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/4tsp Fenugreek seeds
1tsp Fennel seeds
5nos Garlic cloves
1/2inch Ginger
1no Cinnamon stick
2tbsp Poppy seeds
1tsp Coriander seeds
1/2tsp Sesame seeds
1no Onion

Fry the red chillies with few drops of oil, add all the spices given in list for xacuti masala and fry for few minutes..Blend them with enough water as a nice bright red colour xacuti masala.

Heat some oil,sauté the chopped onions, add the masala, chicken pieces and cook in slow flame for an hour.. add the nutmeg powder, potato cubes and cook until the potatoes get cooked....