Surprisingly tasty sweet rocks of cane and palm

Jaggery is a concentrated sugar product that is obtained from sugarcane or palm trees. It is considered as an alternative for sugar as it is very much sweet and also brings nutritional properties with it, which are very much essential to the human body.

In Goa the Coconut jaggery (maddache goud) and sugarcane jaggery (ushi’che goud) are widely used in the cuisine to prepare various delicacies. These both types of jaggery can be easily identified based on their distinctive appearance. The coconut jaggery has a blackish color whereas the sugarcane jaggery has a tan-brownish appearance. As far as the sweetness factor of both these jaggery goes, the coconut jaggery is superior to cane jaggery.

The coconut jaggery is widely used in the cuisine of Catholic community in Goa, who use it to prepare delicacies such as pinagr, dodol, patoloi, donnem and other sweet dishes. Whereas the cane jaggery is profoundly used in the cuisine of Hindu community, who use it to prepare prassad on the occasion of pooja or patoloi’s which are prepared on the occasion of nagpanchami.

These varieties of jaggery are very much easily available in all sorts of general stores and local markets located across Goa.