The Indian subcontinent · Volume 21, The Convent Kitchen, the Temple Kitchen and the Toddy Tapper’s Coast

Sannas

Name: Sannas
Total time: 6 h
Yield: Makes about 12
Cuisine: Goa
Ingredients: 300 g red (ukde) rice, soaked overnight; 100 g fresh coconut, grated; 150 ml fresh palm toddy (or see modernist version); 1 tsp sugar; a pinch salt; 300 g red (ukde) rice, soaked overnight; 2 tbsp urad dal (black gram), soaked separately; 100 g fresh coconut, grated; 150 ml, combined coconut water and coconut milk, in place of toddy; a pinch salt

Goa, cooked distinctly by both the Catholic and Hindu Saraswat tables

Sannas, pale steamed rice cakes, spongy and domed: two or three pale white, softly domed, spongy steamed rice cakes on a plain plate, their surface faintly pitted with small fermentation bubbles.

An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.

Time: 6 hours

Researched: Researched from 48 sources in the brief, none yet linked in the text
Reviewed: Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
Cooked: Not yet cooked and reported

The chapter's clearest single case for its whole argument. Steamed rice cakes, ground from red rice and coconut, leavened one way in a Catholic kitchen and another way in a Hindu one.

by Goa, cooked distinctly by both the Catholic and Hindu Saraswat tables

Afonso de Albuquerque took Goa in 1510, and the Portuguese held it, with two short British interruptions during the Napoleonic period, until India's 1961 annexation, 451 years, the longest single European colonial presence anywhere in South Asia. The Goan historian Fatima da Silva Gracias, of Dhempe College, is the strongest named source this chapter's research reached on what that rule actually did to the plate, and her account is precise rather than impressionistic: in 1736 "the Holy Inquisition issued a decree banning Christians from cooking rice without salt," because plain unsalted rice was "considered as habits of the gentios," non-Christians. Pork's non-consumption was, in her words, "at one time an offence punishable by the Inquisition." The Portuguese introduced potato, tomato, pumpkin, aubergine, cashew, chilli, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, guava and oven-baked bread, and, critically, "sura (palm toddy) instead of the yeast in the process of fermentation," the documented root of the toddy-leavened bread and sannas tradition this chapter returns to repeatedly. Nuns of the Convento da Santa Monica are credited with introducing Portuguese recipes and creating the Indo-Portuguese fusion dishes directly, including sweets still served in some Goan Christian homes on festive occasions. And Gracias draws the line this whole chapter is built on: the Portuguese introduced vinegar "for adding flavour, provide a sour taste and as a preservative," and "Hindus and Muslims in Goa do not use vinegar in their cuisine." Vinegar is not a stylistic choice here. It is presented by a Goan historian as the marker that separates one Goan table from the other.

Read the history

As tradition built it

Two leavenings, one dish

Makes about 12. Ferments 4 to 6 hours or overnight; steams 20 to 25 minutes.

Ingredients

The Catholic table, toddy-leavened

300 g red (ukde) rice, soaked overnight
100 g fresh coconut, grated
150 ml fresh palm toddy (or see modernist version)
1 tsp sugar
a pinch salt

The Hindu Saraswat table, urad dal-leavened

300 g red (ukde) rice, soaked overnight
2 tbsp urad dal (black gram), soaked separately
100 g fresh coconut, grated
150 ml, combined coconut water and coconut milk, in place of toddy
a pinch salt

Method

The Catholic table, toddy-leavened

Drain the soaked rice and blend with the coconut and toddy to a smooth, thick batter.
Stir in the sugar and a pinch of salt, cover, and leave somewhere warm for 4 to 6 hours, or overnight in a cooler spot, until visibly bubbling with a characteristic fermented smell.
Pour into greased small moulds or ramekins, filling halfway to allow for rise.
Steam for 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
Serve warm, traditionally alongside sorpotel or vindalho at Catholic feasts, weddings and Holy Communions.

The Hindu Saraswat table, urad dal-leavened

Drain the soaked rice and the separately soaked urad dal, and grind together with the coconut, coconut water and coconut milk to a smooth, thick batter, in place of toddy.
Ferment, mould and steam exactly as the toddy-leavened version above.
The result is denser and coarser than the toddy version, closer in texture to idli, and carries none of toddy's faint sourness. This divergence, same name, same base method, a genuinely different leavening agent tied to which community is cooking it, is the cleanest technical fact either research pass for this volume found, and this chapter treats it as the dish's real subject rather than a footnote to the Catholic recipe.

Notes

Modern practice on both sides has largely shifted from red to white rice for speed and economy, and toddy substitutes now include commercial yeast, homemade fermented coconut water, and, per one Goan source, even Sprite, a real and acknowledged loss of the traditional method rather than a silent substitution.

What a modern chef changes

A controlled ferment that gets close to toddy's real tang without the ingredient itself

Rung 3.

Method

Where toddy is unobtainable, use a small quantity of fresh yeast plus a longer, cooler overnight ferment in the bottom of a fridge, rather than a warm kitchen for a few hours, building real acidity rather than just gas.
Steam in a single even layer with a tightly fitted lid, rather than stacking moulds, for a consistent rise across every piece.

Open in the atlas: cook mode, scaling and tick off lists