Chicken vindaloo
This recipe came from The Guardian “Weekend” magazine yesterday.
It was from the article about food cooked by grandmothers.
The original recipe called for a whole skinned, boned and cut up chicken, but I was cooking for two and used breast meat only.
I also adjusted the ingredients for the sauce a bit and cooked it for long enough for the sauce to reduce.
Anyway, this is my version.
2 cubed chicken breasts
salt
sunflower oil
lime juice
1 diced onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 soaked dried Kashmiri chillies and their soaking water
6 black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of dried ginger (the recipe called for fresh, but I didn’t have any)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli powder
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of concentrated tamarind extract dissolved in hot water
I mixed the lime juice and salt with the chicken and set it aside.
While the onion was frying in the oil I made a smooth masala paste with all the other ingredients.
When the onions were softened and taking on colour, I added the paste and cooked it until it began to separate from the oil. Then I added in the chicken with some hot water and cooked the whole thing for about 20 minutes, by which time the sauce was reduced.
While this was cooking, I steamed some Basmati rice.
The curry was served with chopped coriander, parathas and mango chutney.
Delicious.
Next time, I will use fresh ginger in the masala paste and add in a chopped green chilli, something the original recipe asked for but which I also didn’t have in the house.
I think that both of those will add some additional punch and freshness.
A pretty useful curry masala paste though.
