Goa Day 3

Goan Prawn Curry

Fish Cafreal

Cabbage Thoran (cabbage with coconut and mustard seeds)

Cachumbar (finely chopped salad)

Mixed Veg

Pakoras (Indian Tempura) with

Coconut Chutney

Day three at cooking school was all about South Indian and Goan cooking. The main differences between North Indian and South/Goan cooking was that we used whole spices to grind our own pastes; in the north spice powders are more commonly used. And secondly the use of coconut instead of yoghurt.

Here you can see Shoba using a traditional 'Adao' to grate the coconut.

and then she double strained the coconut through a sieve:

The only problem was that we were making all the dishes at once - now I can't even remember which dish the coconut was being strained for - Prawn Curry or Coconut Chutney? I would work on one dish, Gail another and then Judy would call us over to show us something else. It was fine and everything got done with Judy coodinating. As I look at the photos I think it was for the prawn curry.

I was glad to see how the pakoras were made. The key here is to salt the onions first to get rid of excess moisture, deep fry the batter twice, drain well and eat right away so they do not go soggy.

Again Judy stressed heating each spice with a bit of oil prior to mixing it with the other ingredients:

After another long day of cooking we got back to the hotel to find our clever housekeeper had made us Towel Hanuman, the Indian Monkey God: