What a wonderful cheese bazaar… at Magsons Supercentre!

Jan 5th, 2010 | Category: Home & Hearth

BY TARA PATEL

WHO DOESN’T love chocolate and cheese? Both are dairy products — one sweetened, the other savoury or salted or natural as in Indian cottage cheese paneer. Chocolate and cheese are such big markets that there’re probably as many varieties of chocolate as cheese and there are connoisseurs for both! But this is about cheese. When did you last think of cheese and what a wonderful world of cheese there is available in India and Goa nowadays?

When did you last step into Kirit Maganlal’s Magsons Supercentre, located mid-Campal promenade, although most discerning shoppers in Panaji know that if you can’t find anything at Magsons, chances you’ll not find it anywhere else in Panaji… especially in matters of cheese and several other things like imported olive oil, sauces/pastes/salad dressings, all kinds of canned and bottled food, a host of ingredients from Thailand, Malaysia, America, the European countries. Not to forget all kinds of cheese from cheese countries abroad as well as equivalent cheeses made in India and on par with any made in France, the Netherlands or Australia!

CHOICE CHEESE

THERE’S such a choice in cheese today that one may make a meal of cheese alone in all its glorious variety! Cheese and fruit, cheese and cream crackers, are popular in hor d’ouvres. Which reminds me to mention here that Brittania a has recently put into the market a welcome variation to their standard cream crackers i.e. jeera and ajwain flecked cream crackers and they’re good; I only wish cream crackers would come in the three sizes of small, medium and large. Little ones are ideal for fixing a host of appetizers or even as tea-time accompaniments…but the Britannia cream crackers are original cream crackers. Although I’m not sure if they’re made of a hundred percent refined flour or a mix of wheat and arrowroot flour, which is more traditionally health conscious.

To stay with cheese here, the cheese market is certainly booming with many players in India today. For example, Gujarat (where Amul is headquartered), in Maharashtra, in Tamil Nadu, in Bhutan, in Pune, in Auroville (Pondicherry) …wherever there’s a flourishing dairy industry. Cheese is mostly processed food although there’re natural cheeses too with a short shelf life; Indians love cheese and not just paneer, the traditional Indian cheese of them all. Amongst the imported cheeses, the Australian Kraft was at one time synonymous with cheese and its familiar blue packet or tin could be found in many homes. But a taste for cheese is getting more sophisticated and plenty of talk revolves around cheese in cheese eating society circles….

CHEESE EXPERTISE

BECOME a cheese expert! Here’s a fascinating list of cheeses at the Magsons Supercentre: There’re the hard, salty cheeses from Italy like Zanetti and Pecorino Romano (ewe’s milk cheese), which are ideal for grating over pasta; semi-hard cheese is Emmentel (the cheese with holes in it!) from France and Switzerland…in two different flavours. Emmentel can be sharp to taste, goes with wine.

Gruyere is mild and nice, creamier, more palatable perhaps…among the cream cheeses there’re the “Phils” or Philadelphia cheeses which go into soufflés and often as dollops on confectionary.

Camembert and Brie are cream cheeses, the first ripe and creamy, the second sharp. The blue cheeses are the most expensive and an acquired taste, they’re mostly Danish but Gorgonzola from Switzerland is one of the best. The Netherlands’ Edam is a red wax covered ball cheese and very popular….Amul is trying to promote its own Edam made in India, it’s very good. Gouda and Cheddar are ideal for cooking anything and everything!

Feta is Greek goat’s cheese and sharply salty, much loved in salads; it’s also now made from cow’s milk, there’s also a low fat feta. Mozzarella is the stringy cheese which goes atop pizza…you either love it or hate it like I do! For cheese advice, consult Kirit Maganlal; he’s a cheese connoisseur and is ever ready to share his experiences with eating cheese. Dairy-rich cheese is usually recommended as good protein and calcium rich food…but it is meant to be eaten in small, elegant portions, not hogged! Remember that Americans become grossly fat eating too much butter, cheese and chocolate…and urban India is going the same way today. It’s always wise to keep track of how much cheese you eat!

Potpourri

A Musical Tribute

IT was truly a musical tribute-cum-catharsis for Dr. Francisco Colaco, family, friends and so many well wishers at a musical evening organized at the Daddy’s Home auditorium at Gogol, Margao, on December 29, 2009. It was an evening to remember as it rekindled warm memories of bab Francisco and bai Fernanda’s only son, 23-year-old Melvin, Dr. Melvin Colaco. Dr. Melvin, who was a first year resident in the Goa Medical College, was returning to home in Margao on his motorbike on November 10, 1996, when he skidded and fell off on the highway. He lay unconscious on the road with a head injury… but by the time he was discovered and taken to the GMC it was almost all over. It was a traumatic goodbye to Melvin forever.

Except that forever need not be forever. Cousin and friend Anand Colaco, while recalling memories of Melvin, described him as a friend to all and reminded every body present that we do not die in the memories of those who love us, but live forever! Perhaps the most heart-warming observation of them all came from sister Elaine, who remembered her elder and only brother emotionally, saying that their mother Fernanda literally worshipped the ground on which he walked and in one incident even went as far as describing him as saintly! She had, in all innocence and seriousness, gone and to her elder brother and asked him if he was a saint? He had laughed and told her not to be silly… mother talks nonsense!

Youngest sister Anabelle sang the song “All over the world” in a bell clear voice. The Colaco family was at one time known as the singing family of Margao and to this day the good doctor is known to sing his heart out at any and every request and more than one Goan holds him dear to their heart. The musical evening had some of the musical fraternity of Goa contributing, namely Emiliano de Cruz and his band; Sharon Gonsalves sang “Wind beneath my wings”…but I would go to the end of the world to listen to saxophonist genius Braz Gonsalves!

A CD titled “Apurbayecho Kunvor” (translates to “Our beloved prince” in Konkani) was released on the occasion; it had been painstakingly put together using photographs of the family in album over the years when Melvin was alive, with his father Francisco writing and singing some stirring lyrics about a dearly beloved lost son. The CD was a memento for everyone who was there for the evening. In his heartfelt gratitude for the evening, Dr. Francisco Colaco — heart doctor and human being extraordinary — hoped that the CD would serve “as some solace to those who grieve”. Altogether, the evening was an extraordinary experience in how music can bring together so many to heal the wounds of losing a loved one and one as young as Dr. Melvin Colaco. But if I may say so, somewhere in heaven land, wherever it be, one Dr. Melvin Colaco must have smiled in appreciation of all the music of remembrance!

- By Mme Butterfly

SHARE-E-RECIPE

(Ask for a recipe you fancy and we will try and get it for you, or share your favourite recipe here with readers and be…blessed!)

A recipe to share the sweetness of the Christmas and New Year season, one of Goan cuisine’s much loved, timeless sweets:

DOCE DE GRAO

(A soft, nutritious halva.)

Ingredients: Half kg chana dal; 2 cups freshly grated coconut; half kg sugar, 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon cardamom powder.

Method: Wash and soak chana dal overnight. Drain the next morning and cook and grind into a fine consistency. Keep aside. Grind the grated coconut in a mixer and keep aside. Make a sugar syrup with water and sugar and when it is thick remove from fire and gently stir in the finely ground coconut and chana dal paste and butter. Stir cook some more over a low flame but make sure it does not stick at the bottom…until the doce de grao is thick and leaves the sides of the vessel, stir in the cardamom powder and pour out on to a buttered surface, flattening it to half an inch thickness. When cool you may slice it into squares or triangles as you wish, it won’t keep for too long so after a day or two store any left doce de grao in an air tight container in the fridge. When there’s no chocolate around, serve doce de grao! Both children and adults love it.

NOTE: Decrease your sugar quota if you wish for an overload of sugar will turn the doce de grao hard and crusty. Some folk prefer thick coconut milk to grated coconut, both are okay. You need to put in some practice to get your doce de grao right…softly sweet and delicious!