Goan Chouriço
Fermented sausage heir to the Portuguese chouriço, metamorphosed by four centuries of Goan cooking. Dried red chillies and toddy palm vinegar replaced the pimentón and the wine.
| Lean pork (shoulder) | 700 g |
| Pork fat (back fat) | 300 g |
| Dried red Konkan chillies (bedgi or kashmiri) | 50 g |
| Toddy palm vinegar (or white vinegar for want of it) | 80 ml |
| Fresh garlic | 30 g |
| Fresh ginger, grated | 15 g |
| Ground cumin | 5 g |
| Ground cinnamon | 2 g |
| Ground cloves | 1 g |
| Ground turmeric | 2 g |
| Fine salt | 20 g |
| Cane sugar | 8 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 28–32 mm) | — |
- Preparing the chillies: Soak the dried chillies in the lukewarm palm vinegar for 30 minutes. Drain, reserving the vinegar. Blend the chillies with the garlic and the ginger to a smooth paste.
- Cutting: Cut the lean pork into 2 to 3 cm cubes. Cut the fat into small 1 cm dice. Refrigerate at 0 °C for 1 hour.
- Mincing: Mince the lean pork through the 6 to 8 mm plate. The fat may be kept in dice for a more rustic texture.
- Mixing: Incorporate the chilli paste, all the ground spices, the salt, the sugar and the reserved vinegar. Mix vigorously for 5 to 7 minutes. The forcemeat should be well homogeneous and of a deep red.
- Maturing: Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. This step is essential for the flavours to develop and the light fermentation to begin.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the casings without packing too tightly. Form sausages 8 to 12 cm long, or a single continuous chain.
- Drying: Hang the sausages in an airy, cool place for 2 to 3 days. The skin should become slightly firm and dry to the touch.
- Cooking: Pan-fry in a little oil over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or add it directly to the xacuti or the vindaloo (Goan curries) for a simmered cooking.
The Goan chouriço was born of the Portuguese colonisation of Goa, which began in 1510 and lasted until 1961. The Catholic communities formed by the Jesuit missions adopted the chouriço as a reference preparation and transformed it by incorporating local ingredients. The first mentions of a Goan sausage, distinct from its Portuguese model, in travellers’ sources go back to the nineteenth century.
The key to the transformation is twofold. Toddy vinegar, produced by fermenting coconut sap, replaces the red or white wine used in Portuguese chouriço. Its acidity, its roundness and its slight sweetness give it a distinctive character. The local chillies (bedgi and kashmiri) create a deep heat and an intense red colour, very different from those of the Iberian paprika. The cane sugar, absent from the Portuguese model, counterbalances the vinegar's acidity and favours a surface lactic fermentation during the two-to-three-day drying.
The internal variations are considerable. The chouriço of Chorão is reputed to be the spiciest. That of Siolim, in the north, is milder and more garlicky. The Catholic families each hand down their recipes without written documentation.
It is eaten fried at breakfast with local pão (soft leavened rolls), simmered in black-bean preparations, or grilled at carnival in February. It is part of the composition of vindaloo and xacuti, two emblematic curries of Goan cooking. Its international spread is carried by about a million Goans living outside Goa, chiefly in Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Gulf countries and Australia.
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