Biting into the Rich World of Coconut Based Goan desserts

The coconut is an important part of Goa’s cuisine, especially it’s sweets. Judith Maria Braganca digs into the rich, and sweet coconut-flecked sweets that make up Goa’s weddings, feasts, and festivals.

There’s a sweet tradition in Goan families that is practiced on August 1.

People start the month with a handful of coconut and jaggery (sometimes known as chunn), and sweets made with them, to usher in a sweet month. It was to counter ‘Agosto desgosto’ (tasteless/disappointing August), called thus because of the heavy rains and the unavailability of much produce. Eating such sweets was a way to herald a sweet month. Goans would make and eat sannas made with this sweet filling (goddachim sanna) or any of the other sweets consisting of chunn, like alle belle (rolled pancakes crepes with coconut-jaggery filling) or patoleo (thin rice spreads on turmeric leaves steamed with coconut and jaggery filling). Patoleo could well be the symbolic treat of the month, made with seasonal turmeric leaves and new paddy grains.

This is but one indication of the importance of coconut to Goan life (and kitchens).

Goan cuisine isn’t same without its coconut. Whether used fresh as in prawn curry, or roasted for a xacuti or milked for a mouthwatering caldin, it forms the base for most Goan meals, silently making its presence felt during every meal. Coconut is also woven into some traditions; the bride and the groom are prepped for the wedding by a ritualistic coconut milk bath called as the roce (coconut juice /milk) — a practice that is rejuvenating to the skin and also, believed to aid with good fortune and marital bliss.

It is in the Goan sweets and desserts, typically made by the Catholic community, that coconut truly comes alive.

Christmas Platter

The Christmas sweets of Goa are mainly coconut based. Be it the queen of Goa sweets, the multilayered bebinca (made of flour, coconut milk and egg yolks and patiently baked layer by layer) or the eggless dodol (soft fudge like with coconut milk, rice flour and jaggery), both of them are incomplete with the coconut milk. Khatkhate is a goan chikki made with coconut, a crunchier and stickier version of the dodol. The pinagre is made with crisp roasted rice flour, jaggery and grated coconut and shaped as elongated croquets.  Christmas or Ganesh Chaturthi is incomplete without the coconut filled neureoes (fried stuffed crescents). Gonns /cocada/teias de aranha (spider web), sweetened coconut strips onto coloured paper are another favorite and add a pop of colour to the Christmas sweet platter known as Consoada in Portuguese or kuswar in Konkani, which is shared with family, neighbours and newly married daughters. Consoada mainly evolved from the word ‘console’ and hence is mandatorily sent out to relatives and friends in mourning. The counter part of consoada platter for other occasions is the vhojem (basket) and consists mainly of coconut and jaggery based sweets and fresh seasonal fruits such as jackfruit, which are sent to the son-in-law’s house.

The Goan Christmas platter or consoada includes many sweets made of coconut.

Seasonal Surprises

The patoli or folle (cone shaped steamed rice dumplings on jackfruit leaves) are made for feasts like São João (the feats of St John the Baptist celebrated in June) or for the feast of Assumption of our Lady on August 15.  Mandos/dhonas is made of jackfruit pulp, semolina and grated coconut. Tavasali is prepared with local seasonal cucumbers in September and October with rava and grated coconut with a hint of cardamom. Mandos and Tavasali could be considered as flavoured variations of the batica and are traditionally eggless.

Seasonal treats: doce, folle and patoleo.

Tavasali is a steamed coconut cake with local seasonal cucumbers.

Wedding Treats

Weddings and childbirth will have a number of coconut based dishes to suit the occasion. The star food for the pre-wedding festivities is the soji/vonn, a thick gruel made with coconut milk and channa (gram) dal. Doce de grao (coconut, cardamom and gram flour) is prepared as a special ceremony or may be clubbed along with the roce. The doce is prepared as a large mound representing the skirt of a doll, decorated with gems to be sent to the groom’s house, while flat diamond-shaped doce is served during the lunch or the bickranche jevonn. The latter translates to beggar’s feast and harks back to a time when poorer folk in the village were treated to a lavish feast by thewedding household.

The kazaracho boll made of coconut and jaggery is another staple of North Goa during the wedding festivities.  The wedding buffet too will have several coconut based desserts however the especiary/letria was a must in the olden days. This is a coconut relish adorned with egg yolk threads (or ‘lace’) made by passing the yolks through a sieve into boiling sugar syrup (or fios de ovos) — the yolk threads are overlayed on a pudding made of coconut, cashewnut and bread. Perhaps the most authentic recipe made in our house was the one listed in Elsie Maciels cookbook, Goan Cookery Book. Fatima da Silva Gracias in her book Cozinha de Goa: History and Tradition of Goan Food states that many of the Goan sweets are yolk based as the nuns in the Portuguese Convents would use egg whites to starch their habits/robes and use the surplus yolks for making exquisite confectionary.

The Goan Kitchen’s sweet platter includes dedos de dama, coconut and cashewnut toffees.

Dedos de dama (princess fingers) was another dish that would add old world charm to the festive dessert table — toffees made with coconut and cashew nut paste (marzipan) and rolled into cynlindrical balls coated with caramelized sugar and pierced onto skewers. Almonds in the original recipes were substituted by cashew nuts due to their ready availability in Goa.

The oldest Goan cookbook, Goan Cookery book or Randop Xicpachem Pustoc, published in 1917 in Roman Konkani has a recipe of coconut milk and rice blancmange, an adaptation of the French pudding made with milk and cornstarch, to suit local flavor with local ingredients.

Evening Tea Rituals

Goa’s evening tea time accompaniments could rival the English afternoon tea. It wasn’t just tea on offer but many sweet and savoury treats.

There is godshem made with moong beans and rice with a hint of cardamom, or its drier version, the atoll made with parboiled brown rice, chickpea dal and coconut milk. The Bardez version is the doce bhaji made with broken wheat made in coconut milk and garnished with cashewnuts and cardamom; it is also used for lactating mothers and as a weaning food for babies. There is alle belle, goddache filoz (banana and grated coconut pancakes), bolinhas — coconut cookies, crunchy on the outside with a softer core, and batica — coconut and semolina cake, which would be the perfect accompaniment for a steaming cup of rose tea.

Doce bhaji is made with broken wheat, coconut milk and garnished with cashewnuts and cardamom.

Alle belle are rolled pancakes crepes with coconut filling.

Bolinhas are coconut and rava cookies, hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

Batica is a coconut and semolina cake.

Letri is a coconut relish adorned with egg yolk threads.

Suloddis or polle are breakfast pancakes made with soaked rice and grated coconut. Nursing mothers are given a warm bowl of methi pez in coconut milk while grandmothers would vouch for their warm bowl of chirgeancho caldo (moong bean flowing porridge with coconut milk) for those suffering with a cold or sore throats.

In Goa, every occasion can be celebrated with coconut.

Judith Maria Braganca is a microbiologist and enjoys exploring various cultures, in particular, her Goan heritage.

Photo credits: Judith Maria Branganca and Joanna Lobo.

References

Fatima da Silva Gracias (2011): Cozinha de Goa, History and Tradition of Goan Food. Broadway publishing house.
Elsie Antonette Maciel (1983) Goan Cookery Book.
P. F. J. DeSouza (1917) Goan Cookery book or Randop Xicpachem Pustoc.

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