Best Balchao Masala Recipes
PRAWN BALCHAO (GOAN PICKLE-STYLE HOT PRAWNS)
This is a fiery, sweet and sour and wonderful dish from Goa. This recipe is partly taken from a friend's cookbook that she copied for me when I raved about the dish. I find that this dish is best the next day. If you don't like as much heat, cut down on the peppers and if you don't like much sour, cut the vinegar in half.
Provided by Tea Girl
Categories Curries
Time 40m
Yield 6 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 17
Steps:
- Put the prawns in a large bowl and sprinkle salt on them. Keep aside.
- Roast the chillies, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, turmeric, cloves and cinnamon till they begin to release their aroma.
- Remove from heat and cool.
- Grind the ginger, garlic and roasted spices into a smooth paste using the vinegar.
- Heat the oil on a medium flame in a wok-style pan to medium-high heat.
- Add the prawns and stir fry till opaque. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
- In the same pan, fry the onions till light brown. Add the tomato and curry leaves and fry until the tomatoes are soft.
- Now add the spice-vinegar paste, sugar and salt to taste and fry till the oil begins to separate.
- Add the prawns to this sauce, mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Serve with plain boiled rice and/or naan.
BALCHAO MASALA
A pickle-like blend of ingredients called _balchao_, is crucial to many of Portuguese Goa's meat dishes, and usually incorporates Goa's other passion, _feni_, a potent alcoholic brew made from either cashew nuts or palm fruit. Also omnipresent in Goan dishes is the highly acidic _feni_ vinegar, which reduces the potency of dried red chiles-as does tart tamarind, another key element in this layered, complex, and fiery-hot paste that peppers its way into many of Goa's curries. Unfortunately, neither the alcohol nor the vinegar is available outside of India (maybe even outside of Goa), and so my offering is devoid of both. Nonetheless, it is very flavorful, with cider or malt vinegar standing in as a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Provided by Raghavan Iyer
Yield Makes 1/2 cup
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Pour the vinegar into a blender jar, and then add all the remaining ingredients. Puree, scraping the inside of the jar as needed, until it forms a highly pungent, reddish-brown paste.
- Store the mixture in a tightly sealed nonreactive container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
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