Pinagr

Pinagr is a Goan sweet made by roasting rice, grinding it into flour, and binding it with coconut and jaggery. The toasty aroma of the rice comes through first, and as you chew, the sweetness of palm sugar and coconut spreads. It is also called pinaca.

Roasted rice and the sweetness of palm

In one example from a home cook, red parboiled rice is washed and dried, roasted over low heat until fragrant, and ground fine. Palm jaggery is dissolved in a little water and strained, then warmed with grated coconut until no liquid remains. The warmed coconut and sugar are ground, combined with the rice flour and cardamom, and shaped by hand into cylinders.

Roasting the rice before grinding it gives a toasty aroma different from that of cooked rice. The coconut and sugar paste binds the flour, and the surface is lightly dusted with rice flour set aside for the purpose. As it dries, it firms up, and it can be eaten with tea.

The cook who shared this method writes of being welcomed with a large plateful of pinagr by their mother-in-law on visits to Goa. Besides shaping it by hand into small cylinders, some households serve it from a large platter. It is a sweet that makes the most of rice and palm ingredients, and it can also be found in shops in Goa.

Gifts for family and neighbors

At Christmas, it goes into assortments of sweets shared with relatives and neighbors, along with dodol, bebinca, and others. At a Goan sweets market in 2022, women from Quepem spent several days preparing festive sweets. One maker, Joana Fernandes, explained that she grinds local rice into flour with a household grinder and combines it with coconut and coconut jaggery. The women bought ingredients at local markets, made the sweets at home, and displayed them at the market.

Glossary