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Pork Bafat
Slow-cooked pork in a fiery roasted bafat spice blend — the centrepiece of every festive meal.
Amchi Kuxi · Our Kitchen
The Konkani kitchen
Coconut, kokum, roasted spice and a slow hand — Mangalorean Catholic cooking is coastal comfort at its finest. A new recipe of the week, and a growing collection of the classics.
Recipe of the week
Sannas
Soft, pillowy steamed rice cakes — faintly sweet, slightly tangy — the classic partner to pork bafat, sorpotel or a rich mutton curry. Traditionally leavened with toddy; this version uses yeast for everyday ease.
Ingredients
- 2 cups idli/parboiled rice
- ½ cup raw rice
- ½ cup grated coconut
- 2 tbsp cooked rice (or poha)
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- Salt to taste
- Warm water, as needed
Method
- Soak both rices together for 4–5 hours; drain.
- Grind with grated coconut, cooked rice and a little warm water to a smooth, thick batter.
- Bloom the yeast with sugar in a few tablespoons of warm water for 10 minutes, then fold into the batter with salt.
- Cover and let it ferment in a warm place for 4–6 hours, until doubled and frothy.
- Grease sanna moulds or small bowls; fill halfway. Steam 12–15 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool slightly, unmould, and serve warm with your favourite curry.
The collection
More amchi classics
Coming soon — full recipes for every dish that graces a Mangalorean table.
🌶️
Sorpotel
Tangy, deeply spiced pork and offal, matured over days and best eaten with sannas.
🍮
Vorn
A silky coconut-milk and lentil pudding — the sweet ending to a baby shower or wedding feast.
🐔
Chicken Sukka
Dry-roasted chicken with coconut and spice — rich, fragrant and irresistible.
🐟
Fish Curry
Coastal coconut-and-kokum fish curry, the everyday soul of Mangalorean cooking.
🍥
Kuswar sweets
The Christmas treats — kidiyo, neureos, nevries, kalkals and rose cookies — made by the whole family. See our family's kuswar ↓
Kuswar · Christmas sweets
The Kuswar platter
In amchi homes, the weeks before Christmas fill the kitchen with kuswar — a whole family making trays of sweets and savouries together. These are from our own family's kitchen.
Where we learn
Cooks & channels we love
- Cook Like Cecilia — Mangalorean home cooking and customs.
- Ruchik Randhap — a treasury of recipes by Shireen Sequeira.
- Mangy Kitchen — Mangalorean and Konkani dishes.
- Kavitha's Cooking Channel — step-by-step video recipes.
Watch
From the traditional kitchen
Some amchi flavours are best learned by watching a pair of practised hands.
Meetache Dukra Maas — salted pork
The traditional Mangalorean way of preserving pork with salt, with tips from the old kitchen.
Watch on YouTube ↗