COOKING WITH THE CHEFS AT ITC GRAND GOA

COOKING WITH THE CHEFS AT ITC GRAND GOA

We enjoyed our recent stay at the beautiful luxury resort ITC Grand Goa, in Cansaulim in South Goa.  Being passionate about food and cooking, I was delighted to get an opportunity to cook with the chefs at this luxury resort, thanks to Executive Chef Anshul Dhyani.  I can never forget this memorable experience.

In these resorts we usually have a heavy breakfast, so Chef suggested we do the cooking- not for lunch but for the evening meal. I thought this was a very practical and appealing idea. Working with the Chefs, I got the chance to make Jumbo Prawns Fry. Goan Fish Curry and  "Daliche Roso". Through this blog post, I would like to share snippets of this delightful experience. 

We started the meal with a tall and cooling typical Goan drink of Kokum Kadhi. 

The jumbo prawns which were cleaned and deveined were first marinated in salt and turmeric powder. To this were added Degi Mirch powder, jeera powder, coriander powder and ginger garlic paste. Also added were 1 beaten egg and vinegar. After marination, the prawns were dusted in a mixture of semolina and cornflour. They were then deep fried.   They tasted delicious served with a salad of finely cut capsicum, carrots, onions and tomatoes laced with toddy vinegar.

The Goan fish curry was made with Barramundi or Chonak fish. Here too the fish were well marinated and then kept aside after they were shallow fried

The masala was prepared with coconut gratings, Kashmiri red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, tamarind and chopped garlic. The shallow fried fish was cooked in the masala with the local Goan ingredient of Kokum. 

A local favourite is " Daliche Roso"  which is made with thuar dal, and has chopped garlic, onions,  and green chillies in it. It is important to use coconut milk to get the authentic flavour of this popular dish from Goan cuisine. It was garnished with fresh coriander leaves.

I enjoyed learning from these enthusiastic and talented chefs. It's amazing to see how everything was so systematically done and how the ingredients are kept ready before cooking. 

Even if I took part in the cooking myself, I must say the dishes were great!  We enjoyed these dishes with hot steamed rice.  

During our vacation we had many enjoyable experiences, but I must say this cooking experience has to rank as one of the best!