Topic: Last Night's Dinner: Pork Vindaloo

[Naga]

With all the talk about Vindaloo lately, I became interested in reading up about the dish. I came across a recipe by Hari Nayak from his book, My Indian Kitchen: Preparing Delicious Indian Meals without Fear or Fuss and thought I'd have a go at it. I later found out that he produces a similar, but not identical, Pork Vindaloo recipe in his latest book, The Cafe Spice Cookbook which can be found on Google Books here. Inconveniently, the spice mix isn't shown, but the recipe can be found here for anyone interested.

I chose this recipe as it seemed to loosely combine elements of traditional cooking with the sort of thing that would be done in the home nowadays. It uses a freshly roasted and ground spice mix in the meat marinade and a freshly prepared paste at the cooking stage.



What was it like? Well, it was delicious! Deep, deep mouth-warming flavours - not sour or vinegary at all - and nice contrasting textures of potato and pork. Apart from South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken, this is probably the hottest curry I've eaten to date - and I thought it was brilliant! My fellow diners, however, and despite good intentions, made manful (and womanful!) attempts, but failed to reach the finish line. Both really enjoyed the flavours of the curry before their heads exploded!

[Madrasandy]

Nice one naga, love a hot curry.
There are some great non bir curries, full of flavour and very hot.

[Gav Iscon]

Nice looking curry Naga. Will have to give it a go.

[littlechilie]

Fantastic description and a good looking pork vindaloo Naga, I belive this is probable close to the original pork dish decending from Portugal,  It was originally a vinegar and garlic based stew with pork I think, I am finding myself heading in a more traditional style of cooking nowadays. The meat juices and extracts are just to good to throw away.

[Naga]

Nice looking curry Naga. Will have to give it a go.

I would definitely go for the the 2011 recipe from My Indian Kitchen if you're going to try it, Gav. The 2015 recipe from The Cafe Spice Cookbook uses a different spice mix and a different (inferior, IMHO) curry paste.

[Secret Santa]

not sour or vinegary at all

Exactly as it should be then. Hopefully you used a fairly fatty piece of pork as that's what the vinegar was originally in the dish for; to counter the fattiness of the pork and in turn the fat mellows the acidity of the vinegar to the point of it not being noticeable.

Unfortunately those not in the know, many of whom are BIR chefs it would seem, overdo the vinegar or lemon and the dish comes out tasting sour and unfortunately this seems to have caught on.

Having said that I don't consider a BIR vindaloo to be worthy of the name unless it has a couple of pieces of potato in it and that's inauthentic as well. But at least they don't taint the flavour like vinegar or lemon.

[Naga]

...I am finding myself heading in a more traditional style of cooking nowadays..

Aye, me too. Making BIR dishes will remain a mainstay for my curries, but I've tried too many traditional and traditional-style recipes now not to consider them as part of my cookery repertoire. Apart from the overnight marinade (which I do for BIR pre-cooking anyway) the Pork Vindaloo was no more difficult to make than the Stifado I made for tonight's dinner. And it only took half as long in the cooking!

[Naga]

...Hopefully you used a fairly fatty piece of pork as that's what the vinegar was originally in the dish for; to counter the fattiness of the pork and in turn the fat mellows the acidity of the vinegar to the point of it not being noticeable.

Unfortunately those not in the know, many of whom are BIR chefs it would seem, overdo the vinegar or lemon and the dish comes out tasting sour and unfortunately this seems to have caught on....

I think I was pretty lucky to hit upon a recipe that 'looked right' to my way of thinking - I looked at loads of vindaloo recipes before settling on this one. Just out of interest, the pork was a 1kg pre-packaged 'Strathvale' shoulder joint from Lidl. It looked really good through the cellophane and even better when I got it on the chopping board. It cooked beautifully, didn't lose size or shape and was tasty and tender on the plate. Highly recommended!

And you're right about the fat, SS. I removed the thick rind from the shoulder joint, but I like to leave a bit of fat on my meat for flavour so I didn't go mad with the trimming.

I remember at the time friends and relatives bumming about the red-hot, ring-stinger vindaloo curries in the 70's and so have made it my business never to have a vindaloo from a T/A or restaurant. I'm going to change that soon, but from what you say, maybe I've been lucky all these years!

[Micky Tikka]

Great report Naga

Straight  from the curry heart 

And with out too many words I understand where you're coming from

Cheers MT

[chewytikka]

Good looking Indian Curry/Stew Mr.Naga

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