Goan Prawn Balchão Recipe

How to Make Prawn Balchão

Thought I would revive the old way of making Goan Prawn Balchão. This is a super-tasty hot and tangy pickle made with medium-size prawns marinated in a rich blend of spices, vinegar, and red chilies. Its bold, lip-smacking flavours develop over time, making it a popular delicacy with a perfect balance of spice and tang.

In the older, traditional recipe, the prawns are chopped rather than being used intact. Also, this older recipe has a larger proportion of onions. The pickle needs around eight days to mature, but is amazingly tasty.

Another mouth-watering prawn recipe you might like to try is my prawn masala recipe. And if you’re looking for a great prawn starter, do check out my delicious prawn rissois recipe.

Ingredients

400g prawn (40 medium size)

1 tsp salt

½ tsp turmeric powder

3 tbsp oil

Balchão Paste

14 dried red chillies (Kashmiri / byedgi chillies)

¾ cup vinegar

20 peppercorns

6 cloves

1-inch piece cinnamon

1-inch piece ginger

12 garlic cloves

¾ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder

Cooking the Balchão

¼ cup + ¼ cup oil

400g onions finely chopped/minced

½ tsp salt

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

¼ cup vinegar

1 heaped tbsp sugar

Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Shell, de-vein and wash the prawns well. Chop them into 2 to 3 pieces each.
2. Marinate them with the salt and turmeric powder for around 20 minutes.
3. Break up the dried red chillies and soak them in the vinegar for ½ an hour.
4. Heat the oil and fry the prawns till crisp. (Fry for around 8 minutes.) Remove the fried prawns to a plate.
5. Grind the soaked chillies along with the vinegar. Add the peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, and turmeric powder and grind everything again to a smooth paste.
6. Heat more oil in the earlier pan in which the prawns had been fried. Add the finely chopped onion, and salt to hasten the browning. Fry the onions till they get nicely browned.
7. Add the chopped garlic and sauté this for a minute. Then add some more oil and the balchão paste. Rinse the bowl and the grinder jar with vinegar and add this rinsing too to the pan. Add the sugar. Mix and cook everything for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add the fried prawns. Mix everything. Cook for 2 minutes and then adjust the taste for salt. Add more vinegar if necessary. Cook the balchão for around 5 minutes or till the oil separates.
9. Cool the balchão a little and then transfer it to a sterilised jar. Let it cool completely and then fix the lid on the jar.
10. Let the balchão mature for 8 days.

Enjoy!