Fire and coal-roasting coax sweetness and char from vegetables, elevating them to the centre of veg-forward barbecue cooking. Goa and Kerala provide bold, spice-laden influences, shaping dishes that amplify tradition and flavour. Recheado, a fiery Goan masala paste meaning "stuffed," is traditionally used for oily fish but adapts powerfully to vegetables. The accompanying sauce draws on Kerala's coconut-based backwater curries with curry leaves, sour kokum (or tamarind as a substitute) and guajillo chillies for colour and tang. The recipe uses baby aubergines split lengthways, olive oil, flaky sea salt, lime pickle and toasted coconut, with optional crisp fried curry leaves. Prep is 25 minutes; cooking exceeds one hour for four servings.
Vegetables take centre stage at our restaurant, Acme Fire Cult, be they grilled, smoked or coal-roasted in dying embers until they're rich with sweetness and char. Fire transforms vegetables in a way that no conventional kitchen can, and that approach has followed me on my travels throughout India, where cooking over coals is embedded in everyday life, from roadside tandoors to beachside grills.
Recheado, which means stuffed in Portuguese, is a fiery Goan masala paste that's traditionally rubbed into oily fish before frying or grilling, but it's just as transformative on vegetables (I've toned down the chilli a bit, so just dial it up if you want more heat). The sauce borrows from the coconut-based curries of Kerala's backwaters, all fragrant with curry leaves, sour with kokum and tinged red by Mexican guajillo chillies,
Collection
[
|
...
]