Vindaloo is a hot and spicy
dish from the Goa region of India. Vindaloo has grown in popularity
in the UK, where it is often made with chicken, lamb, prawns, or vegetables.
There are many variations
of the Vindaloo recipe. Some derivatives use potato, or vary the amounts
and types of spices used.
Here is one such recipe.
Vindaloo is often served
with rice, chappatis, or naan bread, or a combination of these. It can
also be served with assorted pickles, such as aubergine or lime pickle.
Given the spicy nature of the dish, it goes particularly well with raita.
Ingredients
3 chicken breast fillets
2-3 large onions
2 fresh chilli peppers (I use 1 red and 1 green)
6 cloves of garlic
2cm cube of root ginger (if you dont have fresh ginger use 8 cloves
garlic + 1 tsp dried root ginger powder)
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tsp dried coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp cinnamon powder
1.5 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp mustard seeds
0.5 tsp rock salt
1 tbl chopped fresh coriander leaves
half a cup of water
Instructions
-
Take
a thick based frying pan, and pour into it enough vegetable oil to
cover the base, with a little excess.
-
Now take
the raw onions, and slice them into fairly thin slivers.
-
Heat
the oil on a hot stove. When the oil is very hot, add the onions.
-
Turn
the stove down to a low heat, so the onions are just gently frying.
-
After
around 3 minutes they should be starting to caramelize.
-
Gradually
turn up the heat and keep stirring the onions. You want them to brown
quite heavily without burning them.
-
Add the
white wine vinegar, it will sizzle, and after a while will evaporate,
just keep stirring them. Keep frying them for several more minutes,
until they are very brown, but not burnt.
-
Now remove
the onions from the pan into a bowl, taking care to let as much oil
as possible drip back into the pan.
-
We should
now have a bowl of nicely crisped fried onions.
-
Add the
onions to a food blender. Add around 1 tablespoon of oil, and zap
for around a minute until you have a fairly thick, dark brown sauce.
This is the basic onion sauce from which vindaloo is made. Its also
the onion sauce that gives the vindaloo the majority of its 'heat'
taste, as it builds up as you eat the dish.
-
Coarsely
chop the garlic cloves (and root ginger if you're using it).
-
De-seed
the chilli peppers and chop in the same way.
-
Add the
chopped garlic and chillies to the food processer.
-
Blend
the garlic and chillis until you have a fairly grainy (but liquid)
sauce. For this I used an attachment on my blender which is intended
to grind coffee beans. It has a much smaller container and so there's
less waste.
-
Add the
turmeric, coriander powder and cinnamon to the sauce.
-
Stir
it until it's well mixed, and set aside.
-
Gently
crush the black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar. Once coarse, add
the mustard seed and rock salt.
-
Bash
the pestle and mortar, until all the spices form a nice coarse powder.
Pour a little oil into a saucepan.
-
Add the
spiced garlic and chilli paste to the pan. It needs to be ever so
slightly floating on oil, not touching the bottom of the pan.
-
When
the sauce is bubbling quite hot, add the chopped chicken.
-
Keep
stirring so the chicken absorbs the spice mix, until it is browned
and mostly cooked.
-
Now add
the onion sauce to the pan.
-
After
stirring for 1 minutes, add a little water and stir for another 2
minutes.
-
Now turn
the heat to quite low.
-
The sauce
at this stage should be quite runny, and orange/tan in color. Remember
a lot is going to evaporate off as it cooks.
-
At this
stage you can add some vegetables. Personally I just like half a cup
of frozen peas.
-
Place
a lid over the pan, and cook for around 30-40 minutes. Keep checking
and stirring the pan every 5 or 10 minutes to make sure it doesn't
stick, or burn.
-
Towards
the last 5 minutes of cooking time, boil 2 cups of pilau, or basmati
rice in a pan.
-
The sauce
will darken in color as it cooks. It should look something like this.
-
Now its
ready to serve. Add the rice, and spoon the curry over the top.
Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves over the curry, and serve immediately.
