Step 2: take it to the local mill and get it pressed.

Back when we were poor, the leftover cake was used in cooking. Now, it’s used as mulch.

Step 3: let the oil cool overnight and then disinfect/dry it in the sun.

While prepping them for cooking I started wondering about words that exist in other languages but don’t have an analog in English. Zun is one and in Konkani means a fruit or vegetable whose seeds are viable (while the fruit may not be ripe). If you pick a zun fruit/vegetable, allow it to dry and then plant it, it will germinate.

Zun is also used when referring to people. If the person is older, it means senile and for a kid, it’s usually used in the negative sense, as in you’re not yet zun, grasshopper, wait a few years.

That got me wondering: is there a word in English that means something similar? I guess I could use mature, since zun seems to be the equivalent of puberty in fruits, but that’s not quite it. And while we do call vegetables tender, it does not convey the same meaning.

Aah, languages!

I racked (strained and discarded the yeast and fruit sediment) yesterday. This is what it looked like:

I tasted a little of the wine – it’s a little sweeter than I’d hoped for. The port may take longer to meld.

I’ve also put aside a little bottle of it – there’s be a tasting soon

I’ll probably be fortifying it and bottling it early next week.

1. Neureos

These are thin puff pastry shells filled with
a. a mix of coconut, sugar, semolina, raisins, and ghee, or
b. a mix of coconut, sugar, raisins or
c. a mix of mung bean flour and raisins and sugar
and deep fried.

2. Korkol

The Goan version of the beignet.

3. Coconut cake

Most of you have had this at some time or another. I mostly make it for Thanksgiving/Christmas in San Francisco.

4. Dodol

This is really easy to make. Mix the milk of 4 coconuts, 1 kg of jaggery, 250gms rice flour and stir for four hours on a high flame.

5. Doce letri

Shredded young coconut cooked in a sugar syrup and garnished with egg yolk noodles cooked in sugar syrup.

6. Bebinca.

I finally figured out why my bebinca is not as yummy as my moms. I cook it with a 1:1:1 flour:sugar:fat ratio. She uses 1:2:2.

7. Chocolate cake
8. Chocolate cake
9. Fruit cake
My sisters cooked this – I didn’t help in any way.

That’s my sister and my nephew. He’s 4.

The color of the mix is just amazing:

So of course I had to try some out:

It’s still too rough. I’ll bottle it today and check again in 6-9 months. Maybe a tasting party will be called for

Anyway, this is what it looked like last month with the alcohol + lemon peel in a jar.

And this is what it looks like now (about 3 weeks later):

I think I’ll give it another week or two and then bottle it up.