World Coconut Day: Do you know about these 10 culinary uses of coconut in Goa?

With its mild flavour, the coconut is a versatile ingredient essential to seemingly endless Goan culinary preparations, from sweets to main courses to beverages

In Goan kitchens, coconut is used in 2 ways:

• Coconut milk/juice

• Grated coconut

Both forms of coconut are used in preparing:

• Main courses

• Sweets

Coconut milk/juice is used to thicken gravies and impart a mild sweetness to main courses and desserts, including

• Curries such as Xacuti, Caldinha etc

• Sweets like Bebinca, Dodol, Rosatle Fov etc

Coconut milk/juice is used to give a subtle flavour in tea time sweet treats such as

• Shirvoyo (rice noodles in sweet coconut-jaggery juice)

• Tisanna (ground millet in sweet coconut-jaggery juice)

Coconut milk/juice is essential to festive sweets, including Kulkuls

Some tea time sweet treats which make use of grated coconut are

• Bolinha (cookies whose main ingredients are semolina & coconut)

• Alle Belle (crepes stuffed with a coconut-jaggery mixture)

• Sanna (steamed rice cakes)

Grated coconut is used to make main courses of vegetable dishes using French beans, radish, cabbage etc

Grated coconut is the main ingredient in festive sweets such as Patoleo (during Shravan, Chaturthi & the feast of the Assumption), Neoreos etc

Tender coconut’s most popular use is in a Christmas sweet called Gons (or cobwebs)

Coconut water & tender coconut water are cooling, healthy, mildly flavoured local beverages, with the latter being highly sought-after in summer