HERE’S THIS talk of everyone turning over a new leaf and celebrating a green Christmas this year and I’m all for it. In fact, how about a green, blue and white Christmas? Green (real life green, not false dead green) Christmas tree like the poinsettia with its exquisite colouring of green and red, blue is for sunshine blue skies in the day time (the winter time sky of Goa is blue and velvet black studded all over with silvery stars at night)…but where is the cloudy mist? I haven’t woken up to it yet, but I dare say that’s because I’m living in urban Goa! Dona Paula on the outskirts of Panaji is pretty much urban and hereabouts there’s more cloudy traffic pollution than gentle cool white mist swirling away and offering the senses a magical thing of beauty.

Frankly, if you’re asking me, any kind of enlightened development and progress must mean turning our urban spaces more into rural spaces in the best sense of the word. Instead of the current mindless mania of turning every village in Goa into a cheek-by-jowl high-rise urban nightmare…with no eco-friendly water, sewage and garbage disposal systems in place! When the government fails to do its duties towards the larger and smaller interests of its people, then the people must go that extra stretch to take care of Mother Earth, no? And hopefully put the government and governance in its place in the next elections!

Hey, to think only of one’s own good is totalitarian. To think beyond oneself as individuals and a collective society is…democracy. And development and progress in economic and social terms must mean turning more and more rural in the best sense of the word rather than more and more urban for we have seen what an excessive indulgence in industrial, urban development and progress is doing to Mother Earth raping Her and then murdering Her in cold blood. I do believe that even as we restore and conserve and augment our rural infrastructures in our existing urban areas we must reserve more and more open spaces where gardens of paradise can thrive in harmony with Mother Earth and all her other “children”. Our civilisation has systematically been exploiting, humiliating and torturing Mother Earth…so much so that when life becomes worth living for the few at the expense of the many, you can be sure more or less that the end is near. For as it’s said the mills of the Lord grind slowly but surely!

LILY SALDANHA’S `WHAT’S IN THE POT?’

IT’S always a pleasure to come across yet another cookbook on Goan cuisine for it offers more insight into Goan cuisine. This time I’ve got with me Lily Saldanha’s What’s in the Pot? It’s a deceptively slender collection of recipes but it has almost all the traditional repertoire of Goa’s — influenced by Portuguese cuisine for historical reasons non-vegetarian and a fair representation of vegetarian recipes here in a paperback collection published by the Lions Club of Mapusa Suburban. It’s a collection worth acquiring for it’s got tried and tested recipes for sauces, soups, salads, vegetarian food, seafood, chicken and egg recipes, mutton, beef, pork, rice, breads, chutneys and pickles and desserts….

Who is Lily Saldanha? A former air hostess with Indian Airlines and a past president of the Lions Ladies Auxiliary…and now with hubby Alex she manages the popular wedding and party venue of Emerald Lawns in Parra. I guess if you have three children, in Lily’s case, Sasha, Cara and Kristine, then looking for inspiration to cook up nourishing as well as tempting food is a must, no? Drawing inspiration from her maternal grandmother, Lily Saldanha can put into place an inspirational Goan evening of traditional dance, music, crafts and cuisine at the Emerald Lawns…and a 32-dish something buffet feast with substance and style. So naturally Emerald Lawns is so popular!

Now in her no fuss cookbook she defines both a way of cooking and a style with her own hallmark. In the Desserts section I notice some hard-to-find recipes i.e. Eeloz i.e. banana fritters, Godshem i.e. rice and fenugreek kheer, Methi Pez (a porridge to beat all porridges of commerce!), including recipes for Goa’s wonderful so called cheese jams i.e. figada and mangada i.e. fig and mango cheese jams. Cheese jams because you may make them double both as cheese and jam with a divine difference.

Hey, Lily Saldanha’s What’s in the Pot? is a pretty neat booklet of a cookbook and she put it together for a laudable cause… Sale proceeds go towards financing the Lions Club’s social and charitable projects. Not for nothing is Lily Saldanha a cause celebre in Mapusa. The cookbook is available in most bookshops including Broadway in Panaji.