Do You Vindaloo?
Making Iconic Curry at Home
Greetings
Today is an extra-special drop because this is one of my favorite curries to eat since childhood.
Many Indian restaurants use pre-cooked proteins, added to a base gravy and then simply add the different spices and flavorings that make the curries on the menu distinct.
This is an efficient and delicious style of curry, usually referred to as BIR, that is great for high volume. Many of my favorite restaurants are BIR-style curry houses.
But when making curry at home most times it’s not practical to make long simmered base gravies and pre-simmered meats unless you’re eating these style of curries multiple times a week.
For more info on curry styles see previous post “Curry Life”
The recipe below is an absolute banger. A rich gravy that’s bursting with spices, chili, aromatics and… heat 🔥.
If you like spicy curries this is definitely for you.
In fact, the reason I’m publishing this recipe is that I made this recently at a birthday celebration for some friends and the wife of one of the couples in attendance is from Sri Lanka and absolutely raved about it along with the other guests.
Vindaloo has long been known as a hot-spicy curry from the Goa region of India 🇮🇳. It’s a curry that has become very popular especially in the UK; a song was released many years ago titled “Vindaloo” which had not much to do with Vindaloo but still attained pop-cult status for a little while 😂
Without going into a long diatribe of the actual origins of Vindaloo, Goa was a major sea port with frequent visits from the Portuguese who brought a form of the dish over and introduced it to India. Carne de vinha d'alhos (meat marinated in wine-vinegar and garlic) became “vindaloo”. As such pork (traditionally), garlic and wine vinegar are distinctive ingredients in classic vindaloo. You’ll also see goat, beef and other vindaloo… but pork vindaloo is really extra special.
Is marinating really necessary? (spoiler- I wrote about marinades in 2021 but scroll down for the short version)
Below is my step-by-step recipe for pork vindaloo that has evolved over the years to a crowd favorite.
The notes before the recipe will 10x your efficiency and final flavor of the dish, please read first!
Let’s Cook 👨🍳
Vindaloo Pork Curry
To Marinate or Not?
Most vindaloo recipes call for marinating the meat in a vinegar-spice solution for 3-16 hours (aka overnight).
I began questioning this years ago when I researched the effect of acids in marinades. “Do acids tenderize meat?”.
Short answer: no. In fact, acids can cause the exterior of the meat in question to become more tough and on top of that do not penetrate more than a mm or two even after sitting for over 12 hours. Only yogurt so far is an acidic ingredient that has proven to tenderize. (All of this is explained in the article linked above).
Chilis
Vindaloo is traditionally spicy.
I like to use fresh green chili. Middle eastern markets have the long thin green chilis; can sub jalapeno or serrano)
For dried red chili, I use specifically dundicut chilis. These are a small, round, shaped chili that pack a punch; yes I leave the seeds in; available at any India/Asian grocery store or Amazon
