Recheiado masala may be fine but it is caldinho masala which is the love of my life!

By Tara Narayan

GOA has some of the most interesting spice or masala mixes and if you can be the mistress of them all it’s easy to cook up some of Goa’s favorite curries. Goa’s masala box features both dry and wet masala…you may also stretch yourself and make them fresh from scratch but there a dozen or so Goan brands old and new available at local stores, and some are very good if you want to make a caldin or caldinho curry in a hurry to be perfectly happy – all curries go with rice of your choice or one of the many local bakery bread (poie, undo, pau, kakon). In Goan Hindu homes you will find rice or millet nachne unleavened bhakri or chappati to go with the curries.
BUT look at the choice of masala mixes — simple jirem mirem dry mix of predominant cumin and black peppr; then recheiado, xacuti or shagoti, cafreal, ambotik and my favourite “caldin” or “caldeen” or “caldinho”…a Portuguese word which just primarily means savoury soup or soupy something, in this case, curry. As the words suggest many of the masala mixes have come about courtesy 450 years of Portuguese colonial history in Goa; if recheiado and caldin are influenced by Portuguese plus and minus of ingredients, cafreal is courtesy the African slaves who were brought by the Portuguese to work for them in the colonies…for example, a native Goan masala may be more spicy with the usage of hot peppers like “khola” from down south Canacona or “Harmal chili, there’re also the button puff chillis from Sattari and Bicholim taluka, “bedgi” is from Karnataka…also available is the “teja” chili which you handle at your own risk for your hands will burn even after you’ve washed them. All the chili peppers are to India of course but try telling an Indian that – most associations are with chili hot food of India. All chili peppers came to the subcontinent from Mexico long ago…India only had black pepper which was “black gold” which first the Arabs came for and then the Europeans. In till recently in time south Indian cuisines only featured black pepper, now replaced by chili peppers in recent times…really, I prefer black pepper by far but which qualify every bit as chili peppers or cayenne pepper as supper food or some nutritionists say.
BUT back to my favorite masala of Goan Portuguese origin, caldin or caldinho – it makes for the most sublime curry of all time. Recheado can also be sublime and it is not supposed to be deadly spicy, discerning cooks will use the milder dry (or fresh if available) red Kashmiri chili peppers… a true recheado will be mildy spicy with a hint of sour (if fresh red chili has been used), it’s a most piece de resistance flavor.
Cafreal is a mix of green herbs like green coriander and green chilies; xacuti or shagoti is also much loved; but caldin is absolutely divine as it is redolent of coconut milk which is used to mitigate the spices. The caldin masala features coriander seeds, green chilies, garlic, black pepper, a few cloves, lots of freshly grated coconut, tamarind…traditionally all of these were crushed in stony “kholbato” (like bowl and pestle) or “faatan” (flat with roller stone) to arrive at a thick juicy mass and water added in one or two or more stages to extract or sieve for a juice thick and thin. This is like the basic juice brought to a simmer before the marinated fish of choice like pomfret or kingfish or other seafood like crab or prawns put in to cook till a mouthwatering aroma emerges and your caldin curry is ready to serve atop whatever your wish.
The caldin veggies also there featuring cauliflower, bottle gourd (with prawns combo maybe), or just potatoes, or mixed Continental veggies of diced carrots, French beans, green peas. My all-time personal favorites are either “caldinho de peixe” as the Portuguese say, or as I recently savored the most yummylicious ladies finger or “bhende caldinho” at the Taj Cidade de Goa Heritage (hence inspiration for this week’s column)! All my forgotten love for caldin curry revived and I’m thinking I’ll make it at home one of these days.
ACTUALLY, when I first came to live in Goa in 2001, it was my lovely gentle neighbor Annabelle, married to Rajiv Aguiar, who first introduced me real home-made fish caldin. We lived for some seven years on the second floor of her ma-in-law Ruth Aguair’s Aguair Building at Dona Paula in Panaji and Annabelle with hubby and children lived in the next door flat…my side of the building I remember I had climb some 42 steps up and down several times a day to reach “home” to the spacious three bedroom hall kitchen flat, three balconies, rented from Annabelle’s sasumai Ruth…sigh, now so long ago while I’m remembering Annabelle and my first caldin curry.
One day Annabelle called me to my balcony cheek-by-jowl to ours and passed on a bowl full of fish caldin, she knew I cooked only vegetarian in my kitchen but loved fish curry…so she introduced me to this fish caldin which for a while tantalized me the most and I was searching for it in many places in vain. A good caldin is hard to find, most come made with tinned coconut milk which is sickening.
I remember Annabelle had a helpful woman coming in to help her prepare meals…and so her made from scratch fish caldin was like something memorable to discover and relish and look for again. This is just to say I owe Annabelle my craze for fish caldin or anything caldinho!
Like I said before the fresh curry entails crushing such spices as coriander leaves, green chillies, garlic pods, cumin seeds, black pepper, a few cloves, lots of fresh grated coconut… and using the thick paste to extract/sieve the juice in two or three lots (a mixie is very useful). Some will also add in de-seeded tamarind pulp for an exquisite tang with the coconut milk which is of course naturally sweet…if you come to Goa and return without discovering a real to goodness fish caldin you have definitely not tasted Goa, in my opinion!
The caldin veggie avatar are also superlatively good. Apart from ladies finger maybe I’ll try out a mango caldin one of these days…flavorful caldin curry marries well with Goa’s fat red rice, with a few slices of water mango pickle (chepnim) on the side…enjoy your Goa now! Okay, no more.