Delicious Vindaloo

First off, don’t be put off by the name. This is as spicy as you want to make it. And the underlying flavour has depth and spice enough to compensate for if you prefer it slightly milder. As a general rule, 2 chillis = gentle underlying spice, 4 chillis = pretty spicy, and 6 may make your mouth cry but is also very tasty. 

Yes, some of the ingredients sound a little alien, but the spice aisle of your local supermarket will have most, and your local Asian foodstore will have the rest. They are infinitely reuseable so definitely worth picking them all up.

Heads up, it requires slight preparation and marinating, but once you’ve prepared it, cooking the next day is easy as pie. You might be panicking that there is no discernible sauce-ifying element. And you’d be right to notice- there isn’t. But it works anyway. Go with it. The chicken should be juicy enough on its own.

Ingredients for the Spice Mix

• 4 dried chillis
• 1 piece of cinnamon bark
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp black peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds

Ingredients for the marinade

• 1tbsp paprika
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp hot chilli powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 3.5 tsp vinegar
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 inch thumb of ginger, minced

Ingredients for the vindaloo

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 piece of cinnamon bark, broken into 3
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 cardamom pods
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 1tsp sugar

Method

Begin by warming those whole spices/chillies. 

Whole spices, ready to be toasted.

Gently toast them in a pan for a few minutes, then grind them either in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar if you don’t have a fancy grinder.

Normally my elbow grease isn’t enough to fully grind the whole spices into powder, so I then use a mini sieve to push though as much of it as I can.

Measure out the rest of the spices.

The colours in Indian cookery are AWESOME. In Ireland we get brown food and.. less brown food.

..and add in the toasted spice mix you just ground.

Add in the garlic and ginger, as well as the vinegar and mix to a paste.

Dice the chicken, pour over the paste and marinade in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make the curry, heat the oil and fry off the whole spices and onion (don’t worry, you will be removing the whole spices later!). Cooking the onion well here will really bring out some delicious flavours, so carefully cook until golden and soft.

Add in the garlic and ginger and stir for another minute, followed by the chicken. Stir until coated well.

Add the sugar and mix. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked. 

At this stage I normally remove the whole spices with some kind of utensil, but as long as the people munching on it are aware there are some chunky surprises to be removed, there's no issue with serving as-is.

Serve with some fresh coriander and rice. Or whatever you like. It’s all just a vehicle to get this amazing vindaloo into your mouth.