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Xacuti
July 15, 2007 | 33 Comments
Cauliflower from our Vegetable Garden
with Cauliflower and Potatoes
One of my favourite curries, from one of my favourite places. On my visits to Goa, at Bombay’s various Gomantak eateries, and at my Goan friends’ homes, I have eaten Prawn Xacuti (pronounced shaa-koo-tee) more times than I can remember. I preferred it to the chicken version that is more common.
This is one of those aromatic and truly flavourful dishes that India’s west coast is known for. A glimpse of some amazing Goan food HERE.
I had a recipe noted down from a friend’s mom, but can’t locate it. I used this Chicken Xacuti recipe with minor changes. The end result was very good.
How did this interesting name come about?
Malvani cuisine (the cuisine of Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg coast) has a dish called ‘Sagoti‘, which means ‘sag‘ or chopped vegetables cooked in a gravy. Coconut invariably finds it way into most Malvani dishes.
The recipe travelled a bit south to Goa, where they adapted it using chicken and prawns.
A lot of Goan dishes use vinegar as the souring agent, pointing to the Portuguese influence. (Goa was a Portuguese colony for 400 years.) Xacuti doesn’t. It uses tamarind, which is an indigenous ingredient. This adds credence to the fact that Xacuti is not a Portuguese-influenced dish, but the Goan, non-vegetarian version of the Malvani ‘Sagoti‘.
Check out this discussion on the etymology of ‘Xacuti‘.
If you are a carnivore, do try the Prawn version. It is excellent.
Vegetarian Xacuti
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients: 3 Tablespoons Oil 3.5 cups onions, finely chopped 4 cups chopped cauliflower 1.5 cups peeled and cubed potatoes 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder Salt to taste 1 Tablespoon thick tamarind juice 1/2 teaspoon equal mix of Mace and Nutmeg powders Cilantro for garnish For the Paste 1 cup grated Coconut 10 whole dry Red Kashmiri Chillies or 1 tablespoon Kashmiri chilli powder 4 Cloves 2 Cinnamon Sticks of 1 inch each 2 Tablespoons each Coriander and White Poppy Seeds(Khus Khus) 1 teaspoon each of Black Peppercorns, Ajwain (Bishop’s Weed) and Cumin Seeds 1 Star Anise 10 Flakes of Garlic
Method:
1. Dry roast the grated coconut in a non-stick pan on low heat stirring every now and then for about 3 minutes or till it is reddish-brown and aromatic. Remove onto a plate.
2. In the same pan dry roast all other ingredients for the paste except the garlic briefly till they turn a shade darker and give off an aroma.
3. In the oil, fry the onions until a rich brown on a medium flame – around 10 minutes.
4. Grind the onion to a very fine paste with the garlic, coconut and spices using very little water.
5. Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry the spice mixture for 5 minutes until brown, along with the potatoes, salt and turmeric. Add the cauliflower and the mace-nutmeg powder with another pinch of salt.
6. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Let it cook for 6 minutes or so, then add the tamarind pulp.
7. Simmer until the veggies are cooked and the gravy is very thick.
8. Garnish with cilantro.
Xacuti is our ‘X‘ entry for Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables Event at One Hot Stove.
A request from Krishnammal - a Gandhian who has toiled all her life to empower rural women in Tamil Nadu.
The monsoon has arrived, but there are many farmers who don’t have the means to buy seeds to sow their land. A small donation – just 500 Rupees, will benefit a whole family. 5000 Rupees will benefit 10 families. Thirteen dollars, to change the lives in a family forever.
Ammani at Filthy, Funny, Flawed Gorgeous (she also owns the food blog Chai Pani) explains Krishnammals’ life and mission here. These women farmers in Tamil Nadu need help, and they need it NOW to become self-sufficient for the rest of their lives.
ALL THE DETAILS HERE.
If you wish to donate, and have a rupee account, do try and send your donation in rupees, so that they don’t lose any money in the foreign exchange conversion process.
On our part, we will post something we never planned to post before. We will post five pictures of recipes we never ended up putting on the site for various reasons. It’s the Jugalbandi Hall of Shame of pictures and posts that never made it. Now we’ll post them and tell you why.
As promised:
Jugalbandi Hall of Shame #3
This is the failed attempt at making Gulkand (Rose Preserves) from the pink climbing rose in our garden. I took these two pictures and kept the jar of rose petals, sugar and citric acid crystals in the sun. I ended up with brown, soggy, slightly bitter-tasting rose petals. Not worth a picture. See the recipe and what the end result should look at A Mad Tea Party and Salt and Pepper.
Please think about how you can change a whole family’s life somewhere with a simple deed.
- Bee
Cauliflower, Chillies/Peppers, Coconut, GARDENING, Garlic, goa, Goan-cuisine, gomantak, Malvani, Onion/Shallot, Potato, sagoti, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes, xacuti
The pictures of the roses are one your best shots guys ! Fabulous job ! Even with the dish, cauliflower and potatoes definitely needed a newer way to stay together
Hi, lovely recipe. Looks great. Mainly that pink roses are gorgeous. I love that roses photo. That name of the recipe was funny. Great entry. Thanks for sharing.
I bet you replaced the sugar with one of your other fancy sweetner things!
I cannot believe you’d rather live in an apartment when you seem to be enjoying your kitchen garden so much. I’ll tell ya – it will grow on you!
I love spicy Goan food, with cafreal being a favourite. The Xacuti is next on that list. Have been meaning to try both these and also vindaloooooo, so thanks for posting this recipe.
i used half sugar, half honey – that’s what my mom used. my fav goan dish used to be balchao. i love all goan food, without exception, but to really enjoy it, one must be a carnivore – b.
I have never tasted Goan food, this veg version looks nice . Even the Bean burger patties are looking nice with those grill marks. Did you grill it with little oil or no oil at all ?
I plan to grill the cutlets like this.
Those three roses are looking so cute.
just sprayed a bit of oil. can skip that since the grill is non stick.
That’s a very nice recipe.I keep on searching recipes to make the cauliflower palatable
Thanks. And you grow cauliflower too in your garden!I am amazed. which vegetable/fruit you don’t have in your garden…i think that list must be very small!!!great work guys.
the gobi dish looks excellent. the picture of the roses is excellently captured.
Interesting recipe Bee..being a carnivore seen, tasted and cooked xacuti in every avtaar (the seen part incl. tortoise or was it a turtle-ewww!) but never a cauliflower. Will try it or better still will scout for a restaurant serving this as I’m off to the sunny beaches of Goa on vac from next week. As usual excellent write up and beautiful pics!
Those roses are beautiful! One of your best pictures I feel. What don’t you grow in your garden?? Dates, perhaps!!
Xacuti looks so good! On my trip to Goa this year, we had a tough time finding good authentic Goan food – infact we had the worst Goan fish curry ever!! Can you believe that!
Wow! What an exotic name. Thanks for introducing this to us!
I ate all the Goan gravies on my recent trip, Bee, got tired of all that coconut. Your cauliflower shot reminds me of the Sistine Chapel ceiling!!!
I Love your photo of Roses…..Great I also try Gulkand at home….it is very tasty….You really enjoy the home made gulkand. Nice recipe also.:)
Wonderful recipe, this one goes straight to the must-try list. The picture of the cauliflower swaddled in its leaves is incredible!
I HAAAAATE YOUUUUUUU!!!!!
Look what I am posting tomorrow at Aroma,which I made last week and was waiting for X!!:D
Oh well..Mine is little different.
Looks great and it tastes delicious too,I know.Enjoy.Love the flowers.Beautiful.
Wonderful rose pics Bee! But the real rose gulkhand will never have the beauty of the roses. But I bet they won’t be bitter. I have posted a recipe (its actually the way its prescribed in Siddha medicinal books) in my blog. If you are interested give a try. The ratio of rose petals, sugar candy and honey shud be exactly as 1:2:3. This will preserve the roses for years. At home I a regular eater of Gulkhand.
Xacuti was on my mind for the X event,ever since Nupur announced the veggie event. When I went thru the recipe in a book,I thought the gravy was an excellent one which could be used with any combination of veggies.
Those roses look REALLY beautiful.
The Xacuti looks lovely and just reading the recipe makes my mouth water. This is a definite must-try. Have a huge cauliflower and several potatoes.Btw, I love saying Xacuti…
Thanks for introducing this dish to me.
The gulkhand may have been a failed recipe but the 2 pics are awesome.
this, i wud love to try
btw does gomantak serve any veg food? never stepped in thinking it was all non-veg
what? you never stepped into a gomantak place? definitely try eating at one of them. they have great veggie food. the solkadi is a must. – b.
He he, you got an X dish, are you going to enter it to Nurpur’ s A-Z event?
Love the recipe too, I will definately try it
Hi, first of all thanks to refreshing my memories on Malvani/Goan food, I am a dead fan of their cuisine and I was lucky enough to have friends from that region. Xacuti, looks cool, I have to try it with prawns though…
Also your Spicy Kidney Bean burgers look tempting too. I am a budding food blogger and when time permits do visit my blog. Forgot to say about the cauliflower picture from your garden, its out of this world feeling to cook the food you watch growing into such a big flower
thanks for sharing the pics
Xacuti! ah, i was thinking of posting Xacuti with mushrooms
and that gobhi looks very inviting yaar, especially the one in the garden. Lovely info too. am gonna’ try the gobhi version 
and this is practically the only real “X” dish that i know of, he he. so am thinking that this week’s A-Z is gonna’ see lots of Xacuti. who’s complaining
Gorgeous pictures and write up, as always.
waw you have cauliflower in your garden. lovely. the subzi sounds delicious.
Wow Bee, you and Jai have an enviable garden.
Xacuti must have tasted great and roses are so lovely deffinitely in the wrong place.
Lovely eXecution of Xacuti
Seriously, that’s a new one on me and I bet it’s fragrant and delish. Your garden will keep you in cauliflower, I see! Pretty rose petals too.
Excellent word to the entire post .Pics are great ……You guys alwasy rock as usual
thanks for such an informative post. loved reading it. and the dish looks pretty tempting too.
[...] Xacuti and Cauliflower Leaves (Three Ways) with Cauliflower [...]
What a great photo! I love the fact that you can make xacuti with vegetables. I never knew the origin of the dish, or the name. Oddly, I always thought it might be Northern Chinese influence, probably through the spice trading route, as it has similarities to words containing “x” from that region.
VegeYum
Thanks for making goan food accessible to us herbivores..looks delicious !
Even though you say that sagoti the name of a vegetarian Malvani dish, I remember my father long ago telling me that the Marathi word for mutton ‘that is what we called lamb in gravy at home’ was sagoti. No body from our family is from Malvan, my mother was from Mahad, my paternal grand mother from Pune, and my ancestors came to Mumbai from Satara, when there was a famine there. That was before the 1857 cha band, (The first War of Independence).
Also more importantly thank you for telling every body that xacuti is not exotic but very much deshi like every thing else in Goa (well almost, very few of us are comfortable eating swine fed on their own s**t). The gobblesque tom tomming that Goa is showcases an overwhelming catholic Portuguese legacy is at best an exaggeration and almost always a lie. Goa to me feels like a Kokan village except that apart from the monsoons it is too warm for comfort.
[...] Xacuti (Goa) [...]
After having xacuti at a goan restaurant on Saturday, I knew I had to come back and look for the recipe here. Shall try this very soon.