You will find VINDALOO on every restaurant menu in Goa. This extremely popular Portuguese-influenced preparation is a must-try, if you haven’t already.
Back in the days, when Portuguese sailed across the world, they carried their favourite meats in a way that the preparation would last for days together.
The ingredient used to increase the longevity of these preparations was wine.
It is common knowledge that the water-based gravies tend to have a shorter shelf-life, so adding wine, was a common practice. This ensured that the food they carried remained preserved throughout their long sea journeys.
So what happened when the Portuguese landed on the Goan shores, with the Vindaloo ?
The locals obviously made it their own by adding the flavourful Indian spices and cooking the curry in VINEGAR INSTEAD OF WINE.
And the rest is history!
VINDALOO became one of the iconic dishes of the land.
So what does VINDALOO actually mean ?
“Vinha” means wine and “Alhos” means garlic in Portuguese language. The complete name of the dish was “Carne de Vinha d’ Alhos“, which literally means a dish made of meat cooked with wine and garlic.
The recipe is a combination of VINEGAR, GARLIC, RED CHILLIES and a few other Goan Spices. The result is a tangy, hot and finger-lickingly delicious gravy. The Red Chilly is the star of this dish and hence the spice quotient is quite high.
Vindaloo is best had with steamed rice or poee (Goan bread).
Although Vindaloo can be made with chicken or prawn too, but the most popular version is the Pork Vindaloo. Here, I have laid out the recipe for Chicken Vindaloo
CHICKEN VINDALOO
Vindaloo Paste :
- 10-12 whole dry Kashmiri red chilies (or any other dry chilies. Remove the stalks.)
- 2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
- 3-4 cloves
- 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick
- 2-3 whole green cardamoms
- 8-10 whole black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 8-10 cloves of garlic (peeled)
- 1-inch piece of ginger (chopped)
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 and ½ tbsp tamarind paste
- For The Curry :
- 7 tbsps vegetable oil
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 750gms bone-in skinless chicken pieces (medium-sized)
- 2 tomatoes pureed
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp white granulated sugar
Method :
- Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and turmeric and keep aside.
- Vindaloo Paste (grind)
Add red chilies, coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds to a skillet. - Dry roast on medium heat until fragrant and slightly browned (3-4 minutes). Keep stirring while roasting.
- Once the spices are roasted, remove the skillet from heat and let them cool down completely. Add the roasted spices to a high-speed blender along with ginger, garlic, white vinegar, tamarind paste, and ½ cup of water and blend to make a smooth paste.
- Keep scraping the sides of the blender a few times while making the paste.
- Vindaloo masala paste is ready. Set it aside.
Make Vindaloo Curry
- Heat oil in a large curry pot over medium-high heat.
- When the oil is hot, saute onions till golden brown.
- Add the ground vindaloo masala to the pan and saute well.
- Next add the pureed tomatoes and the turmeric powder and mix well.
- To this add the marinated chicken pieces and give all the ingredients a good mix, saute for another 5 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pot and stir gently.
- Cover the pot with a lid and cook on low heat for 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked well.
- Add the sugar and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Chicken vindaloo is ready.
Handy Tips :
1. Vindaloo is high on spice and if you want to tone down the heat of the curry, you need to deseed the chillies before soaking them.
2. Just like pickle, this curry gets tastier as it matures and hence it is prepared a few days prior.
3. The toddy (palm) vinegar has a slightly sweet flavour and for some reason if you do not have access to it, you can use synthetic vinegar and then add a 1/2 tsp of sugar to the gravy.
