Batica

Ever wondered how to make the batica? This coconut cake recipe is very easy to make. The Batica is a great accompaniment with your tea and is pretty easy to make. However, if you have no easy access to fresh coconut to try out this Goan batica recipe, you could try out the Batica with dessicated coconut.

Batica Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 kg semolina (rawa)
2 coconuts (preferably a wee bit tender)
500 grams sugar
6 large eggs
250 grams butter
1/2 table spoon baking powder
a pinch of salt (I used 1/2 level teaspoon)
Vanilla/Rose Water(Optional)

Method:

• Scrape the coconut carefully avoiding any part of the shell.
• Grind it into a fine paste.
• Cream the sugar and butter and beat until the sugar melts.
• Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating thoroughly.
• Add in the salt and baking powder.
• To the mixture add semolina, beating well after each addition.
• Blend in the coconut paste and keep overnight.
• If desired, flavour it with vanilla or Rose Water.
• Put the mixture in a greased flat baking tin. (Use two 9" cake tins or a bigger one depending on the size of your oven)
• Bake in oven until done depending on your oven. Bake for about 40-45 mins. at 180°C for each 9" cake tin.  I baked the whole quantity in a 12" pan for one hour on 200°C.

How to cook the Goan sausage

Goan sausages go well with pulao or even plain rice but they make for a tasty snack with pao. Chop the onion fine if you are making sausage rolls or sausage pao. Also, you can boil the whole string of sausages without taking off the skin but for sausage rolls or chourico pao, you will need to de-skin the sausages.

Ingredients:
¼ kg Goan sausages (I like the Homemade brand)

Onions - you can use the tiny ones if you are using them whole or use them finely chopped if you are using the sausage in chourico pao or sausage rolls.

Method:

•  Put the sausages skinned or not, in a pressue cooker with about three tbspns of water.
• When the cooker whistles, cook on simmer for 10 mins.
• After that, take off fire and let off steam.
• Add the onion and put on fire again.
• After the whistle, cook on simmer for 5 mins.

Goan Chicken Xacuti Recipe

The Goan Chicken Xacuti is very popular and a lot of people want to know how to make the chicken xacuti. So I am providing herein the recipe for chicken xacuti. I have recently shared with you the Goan xacuti masala recipe; like I said earlier this is not a spicy recipe and so can be included in regular everyday Goan meals.

Chicken xacuti Goan recipe

Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut into medium or small pieces as per your taste
2-3 tspns ginger-garlic paste
salt to taste
2 onions, cut fine
2 tomatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
Curry leaves
2-3 tbspns oil
Xacuti masala
Coconut juice (optional)
Corriander leaves, chopped (optional)


Method:

• Apply salt and ginger-garlic paste to the chicken and keep aside.
• In a vessel or pressure cooker, fry the onion in oil and add the chicken with a tbspn or two of water.
• Cook until done. I cook in the pressure cooker for 5 mins. or less on simmer after the first whistle.

• Put the xacuti masala in a heavy pan and add some water depending on how thick or thin you want your chicken xacuti to be. You may also substitute the water with coconut juice.

• Bring to boil and add the curry leaves, tomatoes and potatoes.

• When the potatoes are cooked, add the cooked chicken.
• Bring to boil and turn off the flame. 
• Garnish with corriander leaves.
• Serve hot with rice, pulao, chappatis or bread.

Recheiado Mackerel Fish

 The recheiado fish is a very popular item on the Goan menu and many a Goan have it for their lunch almost everyday.

How to make Goan recheiado mackerel

Ingredients:
Mackerels
Goan Recheiado Masala
Salt to taste
Semolina for coating
Oil for frying

Method:

• Slit the mackerels on the dorsal side and lift the bone up using a knife.

• You can discard the bone or leave it as is.
• Apply the recheiado masala to the mackerel as shown in the picture and under the bone too if you leave it in.

• Close the mackerel.

•  Coat the recheiado mackerel with semolina on either side.

• Shallow fry the recheiado fish on a non-stick griddle.

• Turn and fry on the other side.

• Drain on kitchen paper and serve.

Goan Beef Tongue Roast Recipe

We had a pound party for our family at home a while back and everybody brought something along. My sister brought beef tongue roast. As usual it was delicious and everybody relished it. Here you will find how to make tongue roast the Goan way.

Goan tongue roast recipe

Xacuti Masala

The Goan xacuti (pronounced shakuti) is a  well-known and popular dish both with the Goans and the tourists alike. Here we will show you how to make the xacuti masala and freeze it for later use so that you can have "instant xacuti" (well almost ;) ) whenever you feel like it.You can use this Goan xacuti masala to make chicken xacuti, beef xacuti, prawn xacuti and even use it to make channa bhaji for breakfast. This xacuti recipe is from my mother's recipe book and is not spicy and hence can be had quite often.

Goan xacuti masala recipe

Ingredients:

1 coconut

8 red Kashmiri chillies

25 pepper corns

8 cloves

4 petals of star anise

3 sticks of cinnamon (about 1")

4 green chillies

1 tspn jeera/cumin seeds

2 tbspns coriander seeds

2 tbspns badishep/fennel seeds

3 black cardamom

3 white cardamom

2 tbspns poppy seeds

½ nutmeg

1/3 potri/mace 

Method:

• Roast all the ingredients
• Cool and grind to a paste.
• Put in plastic bags and freeze.
• Use whenever required.