Recipe: Vindaloo
From Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food
Bonus recipe: Roasted cauliflower with cumin, coriander and almonds
From Jame Oliver's Cook with Jamie
It's week two of the Cookbook Challenge, and this week's theme is Indian. I had a bit of trouble finding a recipe for this theme. I do own a couple of Indian cookbooks but I had cooked from those books before so told myself I wasn't going to look in them.
I looked through a few cookbooks before I picked up Ministry of Food by Jamie Oliver. In it was whole section on curries. Dilemma solved!
Out of the curries in the book, I choose the vindaloo recipe. I made the vindaloo paste the night before and marinated some lamb chops in it overnight.
The next day I cooked the vindaloo and then made a bonus recipe to eat with the curry - roasted cauliflower with cumin, coriander and almonds. It's "Indian-ish in style" so I figured I may as well throw it in here!
The vindaloo was fantastic! The sauce was slightly sour, sweetish, and full of flavour. It was wonderfully spicy, which Bro and I enjoyed, but poor Alastair struggled a bit! If you're a chilli-wimp, I'd recommend cutting back on the amount of chilli.
I think it's one of the best curries I've made - so I highly recommend giving this recipe a go. In fact, it was better than some of the curries we've eaten in restaurants (toot toot goes my horn).
The cauliflower was okay, it was rather spicy and sour. It wasn't a bad side dish, just eclipsed by the curry.
See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.
Update: My Food Trail has a round up of posts for Week 2. See what others made!
Vindaloo
From Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food
Serves 4-6
To make the paste:
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 dried red chillies
1 tablespoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sea slat
3 tablespoons groundnut oil (I used canola)
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 fresh red chillies
a small bunch of fresh coriander
Spices for toasting:
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
4 cloves
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
Put a dry frying pan on medium to high heat and add the spices for toasting. Toast them lightly for a few minutes until golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat.
In a mortar and pestle, add the toasted spices and grind until fine.
Place the ground spices in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and process until you have a smooth paste.
For the curry:
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1-2 fresh red chillies, finely sliced
a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked and stalks finely chopped
4 ripe tomatoes, cut into quarters
vegetable oil
a knob of butter
800g diced pork shoulder (or other meat - I used lamb)
vindaloo curry paste as above
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey
Yoghurt, to serve
Place a large pot on medium heat and add a dash of oil and the butter. Add the onions, garlic, chilli, ginger and coriander stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden.
Add the pork and the vindaloo curry paste. Stir well and season with salt and pepper.
Add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, honey and just enough water to cover everything. Stir to mix and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to low, put the lid on, and let it simmer until the meat is tender.
When the meat is tender, taste and season with salt and pepper (mine didn't need any additional seasoning, so do check it first).
Serve on rice with yoghurt on top. Sprinkle with the coriander leaves.
Roasted cauliflower with cumin, coriander and almonds
From Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie
Serves 4
1 head of cauliflower, outer green leaves removed, broken into florets
sea salt
olive oil
a knob of butter
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1-2 dried red chillies
a handful of blanched almonds, smashed
zest and juice of a lemon
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
In salted boiling water, blanch the cauliflower for a couple of minutes. Drain in a colander, letting it steam dry.
When dry, toss it in some oil and the butter.
In a mortar and pestle, grind your spices and chillies with a pinch of salt. Mix with the almonds and put them in a hot, dry ovenproof pan.
Toast the spices and almonds for a couple of minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook for a couple more minutes.
Add the lemon zest and juice and mix well. Fry for another minute.
Pop the pan into the preheated oven for about 15 minutes to crisp up.
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