Imagine the sharp, tangy and spicy gravy of an Indal (Vindaloo) with a soft, small pillow of sweetness. That's exactly what a Fugia is. It's Maharashtra's East Indian community's version of bread. Their cuisine is an engaging and luscious combination of Portuguese, Maharashtrian and coastal tastes. Surprisingly, the recipes and masalas used in their cooking go only as far back as the days of British India.
Like the Goans and the Syrian Christians from Kerala, whose mainstay is rice, the East Indians are rice and bread eaters. Though rice is included in a variety of preparations, no festival or marriage is complete without wadds, polias, chatiaps, sannas or my favourite, the fugia.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 kg refined wheat flour (maida)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tbsp dry yeast
Oil for frying
A pinch of salt
Sugar to taste
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 2; curry
METHOD
Sift the maida into a large bowl. To this, add the coconut milk, sugar, salt and rice flour, and knead them all together well.
In a separate bowl, break and beat the eggs, and then add them to the flour mixture. Now knead in the yeast until the flour mixture turns thick, but is light enough to form balls. Leave the flour overnight to ferment and rise.
Roll the dough into small balls by grasping it with the left hand and squeezing it out through your thumb and forefinger.
In a work or a deep pan, add enough oil for frying. When the oil becomes hot, drop the flour balls in.
Fry the fugia balls till they turn to brown. Remove them from the oil with a perforated ladie and place them on paper towels to drain the excess oil.
Fugias are best served with curry.
GOAN EGG DROP CURRY
Egg Curry or Egg Masala is the safest dish to order in a cheap Indian restaurant, however, its preparation can vary. A muslim restaurant will give it to you with the same curry used in Chicken Fry; a Malavani restaurant will make it in coconut curry; a Punjabi restaurant will do the onion-tomato version, but all these interpretations will undoubtedly serve the curry with hard-boiled eggs. There is a far more interesting way to make the Egg Curry - my mother makes a typical Pathare Prabhu ( a Mumbai-based community I'm from) Andyache Bhujine. And the Parsis have made an art out of dropping fresh eggs into every dish! The recipe below is a Goan Egg Curry, which also drops in eggs, instead of boiling them.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
6 kashmiri red chillies
1 Onion
1 tomato
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
4 tbsp grated coconut
2 tsp corainder seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 cup water
Small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
2-3 green chilles, slit
Salt to taste
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 2; curry
METHOD
Grand the spices (Kashmiri chillies, cumin and coriander seeds, turmeric powder and grated coconut) with water. Heat oil in a casserole and then add chopped onion and garlic. Add tomato and saute till the onion turns golden-brown. Then add the ground masala and salt. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
Pour in a cup of water and allow the dish to cook for 4-5 mins. Then gently break the eggs over the gray, so that the yolk does not break while dropping in. Once all the eggs are in, pour in the coconut milk. Keep pouring the curry onto the eggs while cooking.
Once cooked, garnish with slit green chillies and chopped fresh green coriander. Your Goan Egg Drop Curry is ready.
CHICKEN
Everyone likes chicken. Chicken is versatile, easy to cook, lower in saturated fat than most meats, has a high level of good protein and above all, is available everywhere. It has conquered all cuisines in India. Also, vegetarians often use chicken as a positive first step to enter the wonderful world of meat.
Personally, I find chicken meat tasteless, unless of course, you shove it into a tandoor or infuse it with spices and masalas. If you do this, the chicken then becomes the bearer of great taste.
ESPERANZA'S CHICKEN CURRY
In the early 50s and 60s of Bombay, even up to the 80s, most well-to-do non-Hindus would have a Pedrina, an Emrencia, a Magarida, an Aida or at least a Rosy in their homes, cooking up great feasts for meal times. My friends had an Esperanza. Her chicken curry was half Gown, it left us greatly content and today, I remember it with a lignering sense of wistuflness. This, along with steaming platefuls of unpolished red rice is, as they say in Goa, ukadem xitt!
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
1 kg chicken
4 onions, finely sliced
3 garlic pods, crushed
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
3 tbsp roasted almonds, sliced
2 tsp cardamom
4 cloves
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp saffron
2 cups thick coconut milk
2 cups plain yoghurt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
Hint: 30 mins; Serves 4; steamed rice or hot pav
METHOD
Heat oil in a pan and add in the onions, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and cloves. Fry the onions and spices till they turn golden-brown. Then add in the chopped ginger and garlic. Fry them also until golden-brown. Add the chicken and cook till the chicken changes colour.
After the colour of the chicken changes, mix in the red chilli powder, yoghurt, salt and saffron. Mix well by stirring continuously. Cook till the chicken is tender, pouring in a little water if required.
Once the chicken is tender, pour coconut milk over it and in the almonds.
Cook for another five minutes and allow the sauce to reduce. Do not overtook, as coconut milk tends to curdle.
Serve hot.
CHICKEN PASTA CURRY
I say, why not? After all, we Indians do love spicy, oily preparations. If we can expertly mangle a Chinese dish to make it our own, then why we not do the same with spaghetti? Pasta may be snonymous with Italian food, but how did it find itself in Italy? Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, allegedly brought it to Italy from China in the 13 century. He called it Macaroni. And what is pasta, if not the cousin of a noodle? So, let's add a little besan, masalas and curry leaves to spaghetti and make it our own.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
500 gm boneless chicken, de-skinned and cubed
1/4 cup gram flour (besan)
4 red chilli peppers, diced and de-seeded
3-4 fresh curry leaves
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder or hot paprika
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
3 green chillies, thinly sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 lemon, thinly sliced
250 gm packet spaghetti
Salt to taste
Water to cooking
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 3; mango pickle or chutney
METHOD
In a small skillet over medium heat, cook the gram flour by stirring frequently until it darkens slightly (about five minutes). Transfer the roasted into a bowl to cool.
On medium high heat, cook red bell peppers and curry leaves for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add cubed chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry.
Mix turmeric and red chilli powders with the gram flour. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken. Cook for another two minutes. Pour 1/4 cup of water to prevent the spices from sticking to the pan's bottom. Pour coconut milk, mix with the chicken and cook on low flame.
Add salt to taste to a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the sphaghetti and cook uncovered , stirring occasionally until cooked through, stirring occasionally until cooked through, but still firm to the bite. Drain excess water and refresh the spaghetti under cold water, so that it does not become lumpy.
Transfer the hot sphaghetti to a serving bowl. Pour the chicken mixture over it and garnish with sliced green chillies and cilantro leaves.
Like the Goans and the Syrian Christians from Kerala, whose mainstay is rice, the East Indians are rice and bread eaters. Though rice is included in a variety of preparations, no festival or marriage is complete without wadds, polias, chatiaps, sannas or my favourite, the fugia.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 kg refined wheat flour (maida)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tbsp dry yeast
Oil for frying
A pinch of salt
Sugar to taste
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 2; curry
METHOD
Sift the maida into a large bowl. To this, add the coconut milk, sugar, salt and rice flour, and knead them all together well.
In a separate bowl, break and beat the eggs, and then add them to the flour mixture. Now knead in the yeast until the flour mixture turns thick, but is light enough to form balls. Leave the flour overnight to ferment and rise.
Roll the dough into small balls by grasping it with the left hand and squeezing it out through your thumb and forefinger.
In a work or a deep pan, add enough oil for frying. When the oil becomes hot, drop the flour balls in.
Fry the fugia balls till they turn to brown. Remove them from the oil with a perforated ladie and place them on paper towels to drain the excess oil.
Fugias are best served with curry.
GOAN EGG DROP CURRY
Egg Curry or Egg Masala is the safest dish to order in a cheap Indian restaurant, however, its preparation can vary. A muslim restaurant will give it to you with the same curry used in Chicken Fry; a Malavani restaurant will make it in coconut curry; a Punjabi restaurant will do the onion-tomato version, but all these interpretations will undoubtedly serve the curry with hard-boiled eggs. There is a far more interesting way to make the Egg Curry - my mother makes a typical Pathare Prabhu ( a Mumbai-based community I'm from) Andyache Bhujine. And the Parsis have made an art out of dropping fresh eggs into every dish! The recipe below is a Goan Egg Curry, which also drops in eggs, instead of boiling them.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
6 kashmiri red chillies
1 Onion
1 tomato
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
4 tbsp grated coconut
2 tsp corainder seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 cup water
Small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
2-3 green chilles, slit
Salt to taste
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 2; curry
METHOD
Grand the spices (Kashmiri chillies, cumin and coriander seeds, turmeric powder and grated coconut) with water. Heat oil in a casserole and then add chopped onion and garlic. Add tomato and saute till the onion turns golden-brown. Then add the ground masala and salt. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
Pour in a cup of water and allow the dish to cook for 4-5 mins. Then gently break the eggs over the gray, so that the yolk does not break while dropping in. Once all the eggs are in, pour in the coconut milk. Keep pouring the curry onto the eggs while cooking.
Once cooked, garnish with slit green chillies and chopped fresh green coriander. Your Goan Egg Drop Curry is ready.
CHICKEN
Everyone likes chicken. Chicken is versatile, easy to cook, lower in saturated fat than most meats, has a high level of good protein and above all, is available everywhere. It has conquered all cuisines in India. Also, vegetarians often use chicken as a positive first step to enter the wonderful world of meat.
Personally, I find chicken meat tasteless, unless of course, you shove it into a tandoor or infuse it with spices and masalas. If you do this, the chicken then becomes the bearer of great taste.
ESPERANZA'S CHICKEN CURRY
In the early 50s and 60s of Bombay, even up to the 80s, most well-to-do non-Hindus would have a Pedrina, an Emrencia, a Magarida, an Aida or at least a Rosy in their homes, cooking up great feasts for meal times. My friends had an Esperanza. Her chicken curry was half Gown, it left us greatly content and today, I remember it with a lignering sense of wistuflness. This, along with steaming platefuls of unpolished red rice is, as they say in Goa, ukadem xitt!
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
1 kg chicken
4 onions, finely sliced
3 garlic pods, crushed
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
3 tbsp roasted almonds, sliced
2 tsp cardamom
4 cloves
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp saffron
2 cups thick coconut milk
2 cups plain yoghurt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
Hint: 30 mins; Serves 4; steamed rice or hot pav
METHOD
Heat oil in a pan and add in the onions, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and cloves. Fry the onions and spices till they turn golden-brown. Then add in the chopped ginger and garlic. Fry them also until golden-brown. Add the chicken and cook till the chicken changes colour.
After the colour of the chicken changes, mix in the red chilli powder, yoghurt, salt and saffron. Mix well by stirring continuously. Cook till the chicken is tender, pouring in a little water if required.
Once the chicken is tender, pour coconut milk over it and in the almonds.
Cook for another five minutes and allow the sauce to reduce. Do not overtook, as coconut milk tends to curdle.
Serve hot.
CHICKEN PASTA CURRY
I say, why not? After all, we Indians do love spicy, oily preparations. If we can expertly mangle a Chinese dish to make it our own, then why we not do the same with spaghetti? Pasta may be snonymous with Italian food, but how did it find itself in Italy? Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, allegedly brought it to Italy from China in the 13 century. He called it Macaroni. And what is pasta, if not the cousin of a noodle? So, let's add a little besan, masalas and curry leaves to spaghetti and make it our own.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
500 gm boneless chicken, de-skinned and cubed
1/4 cup gram flour (besan)
4 red chilli peppers, diced and de-seeded
3-4 fresh curry leaves
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder or hot paprika
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
3 green chillies, thinly sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 lemon, thinly sliced
250 gm packet spaghetti
Salt to taste
Water to cooking
Hint: 15 mins; Serves 3; mango pickle or chutney
METHOD
In a small skillet over medium heat, cook the gram flour by stirring frequently until it darkens slightly (about five minutes). Transfer the roasted into a bowl to cool.
On medium high heat, cook red bell peppers and curry leaves for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add cubed chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry.
Mix turmeric and red chilli powders with the gram flour. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken. Cook for another two minutes. Pour 1/4 cup of water to prevent the spices from sticking to the pan's bottom. Pour coconut milk, mix with the chicken and cook on low flame.
Add salt to taste to a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the sphaghetti and cook uncovered , stirring occasionally until cooked through, stirring occasionally until cooked through, but still firm to the bite. Drain excess water and refresh the spaghetti under cold water, so that it does not become lumpy.
Transfer the hot sphaghetti to a serving bowl. Pour the chicken mixture over it and garnish with sliced green chillies and cilantro leaves.
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