ICAR plates up ‘egg’cellent ethnic spread on Egg Day

Panaji: From the humble yet popular Goan street food, ros omelette, to the rich sweet indulgence, bebinca, egg recipes that are rare and native to the state took centre-stage at the ICAR-CCARI, as it celebrated World Egg Day. The institute organised a display of ethnic egg recipes of coastal India in which scientists and faculty presented food items highlighting eggs.
“The uniqueness of some of the dishes made from eggs in Goa are not seen anywhere else in the country,” said ICAR-CCARI’s senior scientist Rajkumar Solomon. “Through this event, focus is put on the importance of egg consumption. The biological value of an egg is more than 90% as opposed to pulses that have only 40%.”
Solomon also stressed on the need for social engineering of the egg and the promotion of backyard poultry production. The institute has the germplasm of various poultry breeds that they are willing to share with the farmers.
“Eggs must be compulsorily made a part of midday meals as they are a great source of protein and iodine required for the growth of children. This way, children will receive adequate nutrition and farmers will get a ready market,” he said.
For the event, senior technical officer Pranjali Ninad Wadekar prepared the ‘andhyachem bhuznem’. “It is a dish similar to the Shakshouka, a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a tomato sauce. Here, however, it is prepared in a paste made of coconuts, onions and a generous amount of Goan spices,” she said.
Sucheta Rajkumar made the desserts, ‘mutta mala’ (vermicelli made from egg yolk) and ‘mutta sarathy’ (pudding made from egg whites), which are popular in the Malabar region. Khush Mala, an LDC at the institute, prepared a vegetarian curry that can substitute chicken curry for ros omelette.