I picked up a lot of new recipes when in Goa last year, and Chicken Cafreal is the result of one of those. Not the I haven’t been fond of eating or cooking once in a while. But now that I have taken up blogging full-time and started this food blog, traveling to different places takes on another hue. Food automatically becomes the star in new places.
Goan Sausages were one of the biggest finds on my last trip to Goa. But I also found some good restaurants along different beaches. C’Roque Resort was another good find during a long walk on the Colva beach. The hotel, technically lies on the Sernabatim beach, but you can easily walk down from the Colva circle too.
We had Veg Cafreal for lunch and the fresh taste of all the ingredients and the aromatic spices completely bowled me over. The Cafreal recipe is said to originate in Northern Africa and came to Goa with the Portuguese. With abundance of aromatic spices, I am sure the locals added some of the staples to the recipe to give us its current form.
So here is my deconstruction of the Cafreal recipe based on what I could taste and what our gracious host at the C’Roque shared with us about the recipe.
Chicken Cafreal Ingredients
250 gms Chicken Legs
1 tbsp Dry Coconut
1 Medium Onion
2 Cups Coriander
2-3 Green Chilies
1/2 inch Ginger
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Clove Powder
1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
1/4 cup Oil
1 Cup Water
How to Make Chicken Cafreal
1. Combine Green Coriander, Green Chili, Onion, Ginger, and Garlic and grind to a paste
2. Marinade the Chicken legs in 3 tbs of the ground paste for a couple of hours
3. Heat the oil and add the remaining coriander paste to the oil
4. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the oil begins to separate
5. Add the marinated chicken along with the remaining marinade
6. Add the dry spices ingredients and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
7. Adjust the gravy thickness as per your preference.
Goa has many more signature preparations and I will keep bringing these to you, until I exhaust all. But until then dip into a thick Cafreal gravy and enjoy your meal.
And yes, don’t forget to put that DVD on. Or you could just log on to the Netflix service launched in India recently. I am super excited about Netflix being available in India. However, the lineup discussed in most press releases seems very limited.
Anyway, here’s is my suggestion for a nice adventure movie to go with the new flavors from Goa.
Joan, a lonely romance novel author, gets a call form her sister Elaine, who is kidnapped by a gang of smugglers. Joan promptly leaves to Columbia to save her sister, but is tricked into taking the wrong bus.
Jack, another bird smugglers, saves Elaine from the smugglers and is joins her in her quest to get back to the city and find her sister and hand over the treasure map.
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito
As they run away from the bad guys, they decide to find the treasure themselves. And so begins a thrilling ride through the jungles of Columbia. Find out if Elaine can save her sister and will Jack be the adventurous, romantic hero Elaine has been waiting for all this time.
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