Little Ambitions - Goan Recheado Paste

Red Snapper in Recheado Paste

My signature dish as a young child was December, commonly known as kachumber or raita….yes, the plain old yoghurt salad with cut vegetables.  Don’t ask me why I referred to it as December – but the name has been etched in so many people’s memories that this story is blog worthy! 

I used to spend the large part of my summer in my grandmother’s kitchen, making december - my contribution for the day’s meal. I was all of seven years old then, but, I insisted on sitting on the palaka, a low stool,  and chopping all the veggies – including fiery green chillies.

 My december making obsession ended, however, after an unfortunate encounter with the chilli.  Pretending to wipe non-existent sweat off my brow, my chilli laden fingers grazed over my eye.  No words can describe the pain I experienced that day – but there was lots of screaming and crying.

For many, this incident (sadly) brought about the end of having december with every meal.  For me, it was a lesson learned – but the curiosity and love for food remained – everything about it – its flavours, colours and aromas.

So while I had a lovely relaxing holiday in Goa with my family last month – there was a deep sense of urgency to return home – because I wanted to whip up my version of recheado masala we had at Mum's Kitchen in Panjim.  To my sheer delight, I had the recipe waiting for me in the August edition of BBC’s GoodFood magazine!

Recheado paste is so flavourful and vibrant that one tends to forget it is made with a whole lot of chillies!  This recipe makes approximately 350 g of the paste and can be stored in the refrigerator in a lidded jar.  I used Kashmiri dried red chillies – as they lend a more vibrant colour with less heat.   I tweaked the recipe – and added a little more ginger, garlic and pepper.  You could play around with the proportions – but as you will see the true stars of the recipe are the chillies and vinegar.

I pan fried a slice of red snapper that had been rubbed with salt and coated in the recheado paste with a squeeze of lime at the end.  How much of the paste you use is really up to you – the Goans are more liberal with the paste and serve up a dish which has more sauce.  As with most pastes and sauces, get creative with recheado and make your signature dish!

Goan Recheado Paste

Adapted from a recipe by Fatima Da Silva Gracias

Dried Red Chillies 50 g

Garlic paste  1 tsp  or approx. 5 cloves of garlic cloves

Ginger Paste 1 tsp  or approx 2 inch piece of ginger

Cloves   4

Cinammon Powder 1 tsp or 1 inch stick cinnamon

Pepper Powder   1 tsp  or 7-8 whole peppercorns

Cumin Seeds 1 tsp

Turmeric  ½ tsp

Sugar     1 tbsp

Vinegar  200 ml

Grind all the ingredients together until a smooth paste is formed.

Refrigerate and store in a lidded jar.