Eat with your poie

An authentic Portugueseinspired Goan dish is most often a riot of flavours While it is spicy and tangy in equal parts it also offers a sharp hint of sweetness all of which come together to give the meal a rare kind of piquancy For Mahimbased home chef Aaron Albert DrsquoSouza itrsquos these flavours from his late dadrsquos cooking that he misses the mostAaron Albert DrsquoSouza manager at Lower Parel bar Lord of The Drinks began cooking during the lockdown as therapy sharing his meals with followers on his Instagram page The Goan Poie He started taking orders in September last yearDrsquoSouza 32 lost his father Marshall when he was eight ldquoBut I distinctly remember the curries that he made My palate I feel was shaped by his cookingrdquo Marshall didnrsquot leave behind any recipes but DrsquoSouzarsquos quest to recreate those flavours drew him into the kitchen early ldquoI may have been 10 when I asked my maternal grandmother Anatasia to share some recipes with me Later Irsquod try them out along with my mother Patience I still have some of those handwritten notesrdquo His godfather Agnelo Menezes who recently passed away due to Covid19 also helped him hone his culinary skillsBut cooking he says was just a hobby After studying hotel management he chose to take up a front office job This changed when he launched The Goan Poie in September last year The happy accident he says was a result of the pandemicinduced lockdownDrsquoSouza was manager at the Lord of The Drinks in Lower Parel when the lockdown was announced With the pub temporarily shuttering DrsquoSouza suddenly found ample time to experiment in the kitchen ldquoCooking was therapy It distracted me from everything aroundrdquo Feedback from friends and family encouraged him to put out a slim menu on Instagram which has been growing since with festive specials during Easter and Christmas The idea for the name of his food enterprise says DrsquoSouza came from his obsession with choris Goan pork sausages and poie the traditional Goan breadPrawn rissois a halfmoon shaped beaded pastry is stuffed with minced prawns in bechamel sauceWhen this writer reached out to order from DrsquoSouza he had already been blocked for a week He accommodated a request for the following weekend He otherwise suggests placing an order at least 48 hours in advance because this is currently a oneman show Our order came to us on Sunday afternoonmdashthe quantity enough to keep us full for two meals While there is a generous mention of Goan specialties on the menu DrsquoSouza who is a fan of Korean and Continental cuisine has also infused his dishes with spices and herbs otherwise unusual to Goan preparations In his prawn rissoacuteis Rs 500 for instance he chooses to go with jalapeno instead of chilli He also often turns to oregano and thymeInterestingly he has dedicated an entire menu to prawns titled the Prawn Hub Therersquos everything from Goan prawn chilli fry recheado prawn and mango curry to prawn pulao We opted for a tiny jar of prawn balchao Rs 500 a fresh batch that he recently made and the rissoacuteis In the starters we ordered the choris potato chops Rs 500 and buff steak cutlets Rs 600 For the main course we tried chicken cafreal chops pork vindaloo tisreo sukhem a clam dish and tongue roastThe tisreo sukhem is made of clams flavoured with coconut onions fresh herbs and spicesHaving had each one of the dishes it was easy to pick out a few favourites We especially loved his rissoacuteis a recipe which DrsquoSouza says he came up with during the lockdown ldquoSometime back I had eaten the prawn rissois at Infantaria restaurant in Goa and felt like I could do something with it I was wondering how I could hype it up and take it to the next levelrdquo Rissoacuteis part of the GoanPortuguese cuisine basically means ldquoreddishrdquo The halfmoon shaped beaded pastry is stuffed with minced prawns in beacutechamel sauce and is either baked or deep fried DrsquoSouzarsquos reinvented rissois filling comprised a thick cheesy sauce mixed with jalapentildeos and bacon which gives it a delicious meaty flavour The tiny exposed tail of the prawn at the edge of the rissole makes it look quite appealing ldquoThis starter takes me the longest to makemdashanywhere close to four hoursrdquo he says ldquoItrsquos cumbersome because you have to make the dough roll it out stuff it with the filling and then coat it again with bread crumbsrdquo We think itrsquos worth the effort There was really nothing to not like about itThe chicken cafreal chops are best enjoyed with fragrant pulao or paoIn this writerrsquos home choris is always cooked with onions green chillies and a whole lot of potatoes and thatrsquos probably why we found DrsquoSouzarsquos choris potato chop an interesting experiment It felt like we were eating the same dish but in another form But because we like our choris with rice we werenrsquot sure if wersquod enjoy it as a starter Nonetheless it turned out to be a standout dishmdashthe Goanness still intact and the combination a hit The cafreal chops in a green marinade went well with pao The buff steak cutlets came coated with semolina fried to a crisp Try squeezing lemon over it to savour this one The semolina crust though kept breaking making it slightly messy to eatA dish that probably didnrsquot work for us was the pork vindaloo Thatrsquos also because we dislike sugar in our meat The tisreo sukhem clams ldquoflavoured with coconut onions fresh herbs and spicesrdquo was the most authentic coastal dish we had gone for and we devoured it one shell at a time Itrsquos the balchao though that we are most partial to Even though we think that DrsquoSouza could have upped the spice levels we liked how it tasted even days on with our humble meal of dal and rice It felt like Goa It felt like homeWhere else to get goan grub fixAiyo Patrao 8450912371Pickled Sisters thepickledsisters InstagramPepper Curls 9769495902