Traditionally a Goan Chicken Stew is made with pork or beef, but Shane D'Souza makes it with boneless chicken. She adds boiled macaroni, and the dish is cooked in a chicken broth that gives it a lovely flavour.

Shane, who practices homeopathy, moved to Goa from Mulund, north east Mumbai, in 2019 and remembers the lovely Christmas stories from her childhood days in the city.

"There would be community gatherings and on one day of the Christmas season (December 24 to January 6), -- something called Agape where all the neighbours would get together, cook one dish and put up a stall. The neighbours would buy each other's dishes and the proceedings would go to a charity, either Asha Daan or just be given to the poor on the streets," she remembers.

Back home, Christmas was always a simple affair. "We would attend midnight mass the night before and when we got back home, we would have a snack. Christmas Day was all about the lunch. There would be pulav, stew, roast meat, sorpotel and a simple salad. We would order fried tiger prawns from a restaurant nearby."

"The stew and sorpotel are Christmas staples, made to date. Later in the evening there would be carol singing, dancing and housie in the building compound."

Although Shane lived in Mumbai before marriage, the food was not so different from that in Goa. "More or less the same spread is tabled," she says. "The only addition being sanna since toddy is easier to get in Goa and hence it's easier to make."

The tradition that continues every year is a meal together on Christmas, and then the family go visiting their relatives and friends on December 26 without fail.

Shane's favourite Christmas memory is that of her mum cooking perad or guava cheese, kulkuls, neoris and milk cream in their little home in Mumbai a few days before Christmas and then "she would prepare her spread on Christmas eve and the next morning."

Goan Chicken Stew

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• ½ kg boneless chicken, breast or thigh, washed and cleaned
• 100 gm boiled macaroni, reserve the water the macaroni was boiled in
• 6 black peppercorns
• 6 lavang or cloves
• 1-inch dalcheeni or cinnamon stick
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 3 garlic pods, chopped
• 1-inch piece ginger, minced
• 2 medium-sized onions, sliced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 large potato, diced
• ½ cup green peas
• 2 cups chicken broth (please see the note below)
• 1 tbsp corn flour, mixed with a little water to make a slurry
• Salt to taste, about ½ tsp
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp butter

Method

• Rub a little salt and the pepper on the chicken.
  Heat 1 tbsp of the oil and 1 tsp of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
  Fry the chicken till it browns on both sides but not completely cooked.
  Drain from the pan.
  Keep aside to cool.
• In a large frying pan or saucepan, saute the cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves in the remaining 1 tbsp oil for a few seconds.
  Add the chopped garlic, minced ginger, chopped chillies.
  Saute for another minute or so.
  Add the sliced onions, diced carrots, diced potatoes, green peas.
  Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
  Add the chicken broth and the corn flour slurry.
  Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
  Cut the par-cooked chicken into cubes and add them into the stew.
  Cover and cook for a further 7-8 minutes till the stew thickens, but not completely.
  Add more salt if required.
  Add the boiled macaroni and simmer for a few more minutes.
  Finish with the remaining 1 tsp butter.
  Serve hot.

Editor's Note: For the chicken stock, combine 1 chicken soup cube or 1 chicken broth/bouillon cube or 1 tsp chicken broth/bouillon powder with 2 cups boiling water.

Or add 1 chicken cube to 2 cups leftover macaroni water and boil.

Or make chicken broth from scratch by boiling 4-5 cups water with 1 whole chicken, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, 2 tsp or less salt, 4 tbsp chopped parsley with stems, 2 laung or cloves, 5 pods garlic, 2 tej patta or bay leaves till vegetables are tender and the water is steeped with the flavour of the vegetables and spices. Strain and use.