GOA
Complex and varied, with a focus on fresh fish and preservation techniques, Goan cuisine has always found its fullest expression in local homes. Now a handful of chefs and cooks are opening up their kitchens and farms and offering a taste of tradition
I’m on a dirt path surrounded by swaying coconut palms that of fer up little in the way of af ternoon shade.
The heat is relentless, scattering everyone indoors and blanketing the village with stillness. I hurry along, seeking out an oasis. Then, around a corner I find it — a small farmhouse with a red tiled roof and a spacious balcony.
It seems a small village can hide many secrets. And here I am, in an unexplored part of my ancestral home, out to uncover one of them. Camurlim is a village in North Goa, near to the popular market towns of Anjuna and Mapusa. And the red-roofed farmhouse is where I’ll be learning about Goa’s Hindu Saraswat cuisine, courtesy of Shubhra Shankhwalker, a graphic designer and cook who runs a catering company, Aai’s (‘aai’ meaning ‘mother’ in Marathi and Konkani) and hosts sit-down meals for groups of up to seven people.
Shubhra greets me with a chilled glass of kokum (a sour tropical fruit) juice, and we sit on the balcony enjoying the coolness of the red oxide floor beneath our bare feet. She belongs to the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community, in a country where concepts of caste and cuisine are often inseparable. “One of the biggest misconceptions about Goan Hindu food is that it’s vegetarian. But we eat chicken, mutton and fish,” she explains. “Goan Saraswat cooking is not only about following recipes but choosing the best ingredients and knowing how, and when, to cook them. We’re very particular about ingredients.” A glance around the kitchen supports this, with not a packaged or readymade masala in sight. Even the salt, I learn, is rock salt sourced from the state’s few surviving salt pans. Shubhra prepares everything from scratch, drawing on all she learned from her mother-in-law — including how to treat fish.
An integral part of Goa’s cuisines, fish is plentiful in a state with almost 100 miles of coastline as well as numerous inland bodies of water. “I was taught that fish has to be fresh, and eaten according to season,” Shubhra explains. “You can reheat a fish curry, but it’s important to cook fish as soon as you get it.” Like most Goans, she sources hers at a fish market and from the fishing jetties, or sometimes even by waking up at 4am and visiting the manos (sluice gate) to source small prawns for pickling.
I watch and listen as she cleans and cooks the fish, picking up tips. Mackerel skin, for example, should show rainbow colours
