This is the taste of Goa. Super hot, red recheado masala is used to marinate, coat or stuff into the food you are cooking.
It is a Portuguese-inspired recipe and the name comes from the Portuguese word for “stuffing”. You use this masala to marinate poultry or stuff it into fish. It is used in meat dishes, too, notably Goan steak.
There are recipes in this cookbook for several dishes that use recheado paste.
The flavour it gives is hot and tangy. It is not a subtle way of cooking and it really requires strongly flavoured ingredients, such as fish or meat. It is not usually used in vegetarian dishes.
This recipe will give you a yield of about 400g, enough for two recipes. It will keep well in the refrigerator for about three weeks if kept in an airtight jar. It will lose pungency as it ages. You can also successfully freeze this. I recommend freezing it in containers of around 200g, which is the normal cooking requirement.
the recipe
ingredients
- 40 g ginger - coarsely chopped
- 25 cloves garlic - coarsely chopped
- 25 dried Kashmiri chillies - crumbled
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorn
- 1 stick cassia - crumbled
- 5 cloves
- ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp jaggery - grated
- 250 ml red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 red onions - coarsely chopped
- ½ tsp salt
instructions
- Place all the ingredients, except the onion, salt and oil, into a glass bowl, mix well, cover with water and leave to soak overnight.
- Once the ingredients are soaked, heat the oil in a pan on medium-low heat. Add the onion and salt and fry for 8-10 minutes, or until the onion softens. Set aside and allow to cool enough to handle.
- Drain the soaking liquid from the spices and set aside.
- Place the soaked ingredients and the fried onions into a blender and blend to a thick paste, using a little of the soaking liquid if required.
- Transfer to a sealable jar and refrigerate for further use.
notes
- This makes enough masala for about two dishes. This recipe can be scaled to make more. Just increase all the quantities by the same factor. It would be hard to scale it down, though.
private notes
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Once the spices are soaked, do you drain the water before grinding?
Gautam – you should drain the water, but retain a little to help make the paste. I will edit the recipe to make that clear.