Goa -- Feijoada (Vegan recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 7
State: Goa
Dish: Goan Feijoada

Goa is India's smallest state by area and is located on the the weat coast of India. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita 2½ times that of the country as a whole. Goa is a former Portuguese province; the Portuguese overseas territory of Territory India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961. Goa has beautiful beaches and breathtaking views that attract large numbers of international as well as domestic tourists.
My dad visited Goa a number of times for business purposes and he used to bring back bags full of cashews. Visiting Goa is something I would love to do sometime. Even though I cannot swim and will probably won't enjoy the beaches, but I want to explore the historic and artistic cathedrals and churches.

Cuisine: Goan food can be divided into Goan Catholic and Goan Hindu cuisine, each of which has its own distinct taste, charateristic and cooking style. Pork is widely used in dishes among the Goan Catholics. While the Hindu cuisine is partly pescetarianism and partly lacto vegetarian. Hindu cuisine mainly uses less heat, tamarind and kokum for souring and jaggery for sweetness. They use coconut oil as the medium of cooking.
Staple Food: Rice, Fish
Specialties: Vindaloo, Xacuti, Khatkhate, Feijoada, Bebinca etc.,

Today's Dish: I have tried quite a few Goan dishes in the past. I love the use of spices in goan dishes and my absolute favorite is this Xacuti. For this edition I wanted try the famous Goan sweet dish called bebinca, but changed my mind at the last minute and made yet another famous spicy curry from Feijoada.

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Vegetarian Vindaloo with Eggplant & Mushroom

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Goan Cuisine
Dish: Eggplant & Mushroom Vindaloo

For Day 2 under "Goan Cuisine" for BM# 26, I made Vindaloo with Eggplant, mushrooms and red pepper. A little bit of Wiki gyan (knowledge) about Vindaloo -- "Vindaloo is derived from a Portuguese dish named "Carne de Vinha d' Alhos" which is usually made with pork, red wine and garlic.The Goans modified the dish by using vinegar for the red wine and kashmiri chilies and additional spices."

When I saw this recipe Eggplant and Mushroom Vindaloo on Vaishali's blog, I wanted to try it myself to see how it tastes. This recipe uses balsamic vinegar instead of white vinegar and that sounded delicious to me. Balsamic vinegar gives the dish a mildly sweet tangy flavor that goes great with the veggies. I add balsamic to my roasted veggies, so I know it tastes amazing. I wasn't disappointed at all. When I tasted the dish, there was a party of flavors in my mouth. Its tangy, spicy, sour, sweet, all at the same time.

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Vegetarian Xacuti

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Goan Cuisine
Dish: Vegetarian Xacuti with Meatless Meatballs

Today we start Blogging Marathon# 26 and my theme for this week is "Goan Cuisine". The only dish that  I have tried from Goa is the Vegetable Vindaloo. So when I saw this theme, I decided to try more dishes from this cuisine.

When I think of Goa, I think of scenic blue seas, beautiful churches and lush greenery. All this from watching a ton of Indian movies because I'm fortunate to visit this paradise on earth yet. Hopefully one day we can make this trip. When I think of Goan cuisine, I think of seafood and meat, because from movies like Saagar of the coast, the Portuguese colonization and the Christian population. But what I didn't know that there are vegetarian dishes that are unique to konkani region.

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Goan Mixed Vegetable Curry

Pressure cooker is a quintessential equipment in any Indian kitchen. I own 6 pressure cookers in different sizes, shapes and materials -- stainless steel, aluminum and hard anodized. Each one has its own purpose, one can fit the idli stand, one cooks for a crowd, one for 2 and so on. More than a couple of them have served me well for the past 12+ years. Fortunately I've never had an accident in my kitchen (touch wood).

So when Jaya posted about a cookbook author belittling my beloved kitchen equipment, I wanted to show my love to my pressure cooker by posting about it. Like any Indian, I cook rice, lentils, beans, veggie curries etc in the pressure cooker. In today's recipe I used the cooker to cook the veggies and give me a head start in making the curry. 

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