Life is moving at such a speedy pace. Most of us are constantly hustling and juggling various jobs, both at home and outside. We hardly have enough time to cook a wholesome and extensive meal in the kitchen. *I’M GUILTY OF ORDERING IN TAKEOUTS*. Not always the best choice. That’s when such homemade pastes or masalas come in handy. This homemade Goan recheado masala is Nigel’s mom’s (my MIL) recipe.
MORE ABOUT THIS MASALA
Recheado or this red masala is a must-have paste in our Goan home kitchens. Recheado in Portuguese means stuffed. As the name suggests, it is mostly used as a stuffing and goes amazingly well with fish or meat preparations. My favourite would be Recheado bangde or Recheado Mackerels. It is my all time favourite food with some Goan prawn curry and steaming hot rice.
USES OF THIS PASTE
This paste can be used for a variety of other recipes. I use it to make some quick pickles. It also comes in handy when you want to prepare another Goan staple favourite, the infamous Goan sorpotel. I also like making a quick fish ambot tik using this paste.
A little paste goes a long way. Apply a bit of it on some white fish and fry it as an accompaniment for your next meal. You’ll surely thank me as this combination of fish and this paste is mouthwateringly tasty.
You can make a few variations to this paste. Use this paste to pickle sausage meat. Even stuff raw mangoes and pickle them. Add a few more pickling spices before you do this.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS PASTE?
This paste has a very spicy and tangy taste to it.
In Goa, this paste is mainly made in abundance and bottled up for the monsoon season. It is even used throughout the year in many recipes. I’ve used it to make roast chicken. Some people also use it to marinate piglings and then roast the whole pigling on firewood. I want to try roasting a pigling one day. Ah, I can only dream of the juicy smoked meat now!
Living in London keeps life very busy. This Goan masala is just wonderful and always comes to the rescue. It’s like bottling up ready-made or homemade garlic-ginger paste, which always comes in handy while cooking. You can also use this paste as a base for curries.
This recipe is how ‘Moira Mama’ makes it. We always carry along sealed bottles of this paste on our way back from Goa, made with love by her.
You can also use this paste to stuff vegetables. Don’t forget to check out my Stuffed Grilled Okra recipe.
HOW TO MAKE THIS PASTE
You can make this paste with any number of kilos of chillies you want and preserve it.
For this recipe, I’ve used a quarter kilo of dried red Kashmiri chillies. It’s best refrigerated. However, if the weather is cool enough, like here in London, you can leave it out at normal room temperature. The vinegar used acts as a preservative. Here, again, I would prefer to use Goan vinegar which is made from the coconut toddy. You can also substitute it with Palm vinegar.
In olden days, people in Goa used to use a rogdo or fator (grinding stone) to make this paste. Nowadays everyone just uses a grinder or blender. I would love to use a rogdo again some day. That’s like working out in the kitchen, and it is a perfect arms and muscle exercise.
You aren’t in India or any Asian country. Then, you’ll certainly find these chillies in Asian or Indian grocery shops.
THE HOMEMADE GOAN RECHEADO RECIPE
AuthorVania CottaCategory30 MINUTES OR LESS, BROWSE RECIPES, BY CUISINE, BY SKILL/TIME, EASY, FOOD PREP GUIDES, FOOD SERIES, FOOD TO THE RESCUE, GOAN, HOW-TO, RECIPE INDEX, RECIPESCuisineGOANCooking MethodGRINDINGDifficultyBeginnerThis homemade Goan recheado masala paste is spicy and tangy. It is perfect for fish and meat preparations. A must-have paste to keep handy at home.
Coarsely grind the chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric, ginger, onion, cloves and cinnamon in a little vinegar until well combined.
Next, add tamarind with the vinegar that was used to soften it and garlic. Grind all this into a fine, thick paste adding more vinegar to adjust the consistency. Do not make this paste too runny.
Add salt and sugar to taste. Be mindful of the sugar added, as you do not want this paste to be too sweet.
Once the paste is slightly cooled down post-grinding, store it properly in a glass airtight jar. Make sure it doesn't come in contact with water.
- This recipe can be adjusted for sweetness according to the recipe it will be used in, as per your taste.
- This recipe can be stored for up to months if preserved properly.
- For a spicer version of this paste, add about 5-6 whole black peppercorns.
Ingredients
Directions
Coarsely grind the chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric, ginger, onion, cloves and cinnamon in a little vinegar until well combined.
Next, add tamarind with the vinegar that was used to soften it and garlic. Grind all this into a fine, thick paste adding more vinegar to adjust the consistency. Do not make this paste too runny.
Add salt and sugar to taste. Be mindful of the sugar added, as you do not want this paste to be too sweet.
Once the paste is slightly cooled down post-grinding, store it properly in a glass airtight jar. Make sure it doesn't come in contact with water.
Notes
- This recipe can be adjusted for sweetness according to the recipe it will be used in, as per your taste.
- This recipe can be stored for up to months if preserved properly.
- For a spicer version of this paste, add about 5-6 whole black peppercorns.
If you like the recipe then don’t forget to LIKE👍🏻, SHARE🔜 and COMMENT…
Please do follow TRULY SOULFULLY EATS on all our socials:
Instagram (using #trulysoulfullyeats for all your food snaps), X, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
Also, if you care then write ✍🏻 to me on contact@trulysoulfullyeats.com – this is also for any collaborations and business talks.
Enjoy!
Discover more from Truly Soulfully Eats
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.