These fading Goan sweets taste of its tradition and past

DANUSKA DA GAMA

Long before exotic ingredients made their entry into Goa, in Goan homes sweets were made from easily found staples—rice, wheat, seasonal fruits and lentils. To these unassuming elements were added unique flavours turning them into delicious sweets.

Generally, evening snacks were never savoury. They were home-made, moderately sweet traditional items made by my grandmother, who passed on the recipe to my mother and aunts. These recipes were guarded, like heirlooms, and passed to the next generation with love.

Mandos

More like a rice cake, this steamed sweet is made of rice, coconut, palm jaggery and a touch of cardamom for flavouring. “People also call it andyantu bakri”, says Crescy Baptista from Margao, who makes this sweet once a week at The Goan Kitchen.

A nice dense, coarse-looking sweet it’s more brownish in colour and has a nutty flavour. “This tea-time delicacy, ‘merenda’, is also seasonal in terms of what ingredients are used,” she mentions.

Currently, and until October, local cucumber is used for the mandos. Between April and May cashews are used, after which jackfruit, available in plenty, is used.

“The ‘rasal’ jackfruit is used to make mandos as it is softer and juicier,” Baptista says whose personal favourite is cucumber, as it provides a unique taste. Cucumbers are also used in sweets she says.

It is interesting to note that mandos with cucumbers is prepared in Hindu households too, and it is called ‘Tavsale’ or ‘Dhondas’. There is difference though. The jaggery used in Catholic homes is the dark brown coconut or palm jaggery, while the Hindus use the golden-brown sugarcane jaggery.

Also, while Catholics use ‘ukde’ par-boiled rice, the Hindus use broken wheat that is soaked overnight to which the cucumber, coconut and jaggery is added.

Doce Bhaji

As the name suggests, this dish, more like a pudding, is meant to be sweet and savoury. I was introduced to it about a decade ago when my mother purchased a small block from Simonia Bakery in Mapusa. I loved it from the first bite – coarse and moist, not too sweet, the grainy texture made it comforting. If you microwave it for 30 seconds, it’s all you need with a cuppa tea on a rainy day.

Also referred to as ‘Lapsi’ in the western region (must have heard it in the movie Maharaj starring Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan), this sweet is unfortunately, not that known by the millennials and Gen Z.

Making the sweet is painstaking and involves a lot of stirring with broken wheat, readily available in stores as ‘dahlia’, sugar, coconut milk and ghee.

“I learned to make doce bhaji from my mother-in-law, who would go to cook ‘vonn-xitt’ (the traditional meal) served before weddings, or popularly called ‘Bikareanchem Jevonn’,” says Lourdes Alvares from Corjuem-Aldona, who takes orders to prepare doce bhaji and other traditional Goan sweets.

Known to be healthy it was fed to lactating mothers as it would aid in milk production and give them strength for a faster recovery after childbirth. Children were also given doce bhaji as it would make them stronger.

“My mother-in-law would make it for me when I gave birth to my son Clive,” Lourdes recalls, and that is how she went on to make this sweet and give it to her friends after their deliveries. And from there to starting her business, which is now over 30 years old and carries on through word of mouth.

The wheat should be soaked overnight and kept coarse, as a powdered form won’t work. Thick coconut milk is set aside for later, while other extracts are used to boil the wheat. Once cooked, thick milk, sugar, ghee, cardamom powder and nutmeg are added.

“Stirring is the most laborious part. The mixture is ready when it pulls away from the pot’s sides. Then, spread it on a greased plate and smooth the top. Traditionally, a woodfire ‘chull’ was used, imparting a smoky flavour to the sweet,” says Alvares.

In fact, owing to the shelf-life, it is probably why it isn’t popular or sold commercially. But if you do find doce bhaji, freeze it for some days before you carry it outside Goa.

Kholle

‘kholle’ means cones in Konkani. As children we would be instructed by granny to seek permission from neighbour aunts to pluck some leaves. Then we washed them and twisted them into cones.

Making ‘kholle’ is like how ‘patoleo’ is prepared. ‘Ukde’ rice is soaked overnight and ground to a fine paste with salt. The mixture of jaggery and coconut with flavouring is used to fill the cones prepared of jackfruit leaves pinned with toothpick. After the cones are filled and covered, they are steamed and enjoyed with a cup of black or lemon tea.

“In South Goa they were made when a newlywed couple was invited for dinner after the litany. In some cones there would add salt to have some fun and then the couple would be given forfeits if they chose it,” Zita Viegas from Margao shares.

Other Sweets

There are several other sweets that have been replaced with snacks today. Some of these need revival. Viegas shares that earlier children would love traditional sweets and she would derive happiness preparing them.

“In Konkani ‘ghodd’ means sweet so the name the ‘Ghoddxem’ came about. Between 1960 to early 1990s, there were more joint families and a single bread winner. There weren’t many choices in the market too and so we made sweets and still do, off and on,” she says.

Other sweets like ‘koiloreo’ made from ground rice, coconut and sugar and fried on a pan, and ‘Chunn’, a nutritious sweet made with lentils, which can include moong beans, kidney beans or black eyes beans soaked and boiled and then mixed with some coconut and jaggery, and ‘Shevyo’ — rice noodles served with coconut and jaggery mixture are also innate to Goan homes.