Goa New: Local Dessert

Layer by layer, this pudding is built from coconut milk, egg yolk, flour, sugar and ghee, with each layer grilled before the next is poured. Sixteen layers is the traditional count. Baking one takes several hours of attention. It is the centrepiece of a Goan Christmas tray and is served warm with ice cream.

Jaggery, coconut milk and rice flour are stirred over a low flame for hours until the mixture darkens and pulls away from the pan. It sets into a dense, chewy block cut into diamonds. Cashew pieces are often folded through. Versions of it are found across the old Portuguese trade route, from Goa to Malacca.

Thin crepes are rolled around a filling of grated coconut cooked with jaggery and a little cardamom. The name is thought to come from the Portuguese. Beach vendors carry them in baskets through the afternoon. They are eaten at room temperature, and the filling should still be moist rather than dry.

Chana dal and grated coconut are cooked with sugar until stiff enough to press into a tray and cut. The texture falls between fudge and burfi. Convents in Goa are credited with the recipe, and the sweet is still associated with the town of Chorão. It appears on Christmas and wedding trays.

Guava pulp is cooked down with sugar until it sets firm enough to slice, then cut into cubes and dusted with sugar. The Portuguese brought both the fruit and the marmelada technique to Goa. It is made in the guava season around October and November. Colour ranges from pink to deep red depending on the fruit.

The Portuguese word means sawdust, which describes the layer of crushed Marie biscuit between spoonfuls of whipped cream and condensed milk. It is assembled cold and chilled, never baked. The dessert travelled to Goa via Macau. Most Goan restaurants now serve it in a glass at the end of a meal.

Semolina and coconut are soaked overnight, then baked with butter, eggs and sugar into a dense, moist cake with a cracked top. It keeps for several days and improves on the second. Goan Catholic families bake it at Christmas and Easter. Some recipes add a splash of feni or rum to the batter.

Sweet coconut milk is thickened with rice flour or semolina and flavoured with jaggery and cardamom, sometimes with chana dal folded in. Saraswat Hindu households make it for temple festivals and family occasions rather than for sale. It is served warm in a bowl. Finding it in restaurants takes some asking.