If you just want to see the recipe just skip on. Here comes a lot of blabber about what kind if vindaloo this is and why:

I love hot food, I really do, I am one of those people who can get high on torturing myself with food that you have to struggle to eat. As such I do order vindaloo from time to time, but generally they don't seem to taste as much other good and flavour rich curries so I settle for something milder unless I need that kick. As a result I always try to make vindaloos that give me that desired heat but without being flavourless. The Francis Tolbert chili con carne and its well-rounded and not too harsh heat is a big inspiration, and I must say that dried chilis, which are used in this recipe, work great. I also use red wine instead of vinegar, because to me in cooking that's always better, and I can get more of that winy taste without making it too acidly harsh. I think that I've finally made a good one that actually resembles many vindaloos I've had here in Sweden (though the cooking is probably far off), but with a richer taste that I find delicious.

I must add straightaway, though, that I think a good vindaloo should have a spicily dry flavour, not sweet or sour (that's never happened to me anyway) and I've never had one with potatoes so if you're into that kind of stuff that's up to you.

Here is the recipe, good for about 2 people:

The recipe:

Spice mix
3 tsp Standard chili powder (or more if you like)
2 tsp Extra hot chili powder (I used dried piri piri)
2-3 tsp Coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp Medium to hot curry powder (I used a Madras powder)
1 tsp Ground dried coriander leaves (or just add a little extra fresh)
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp Coriander powder (seeds)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Ingredients
1 Green jalape?o
1 Hot chipotle
2 Anchos
100 ml oil (or less if you don't like it too oily, I for one love oil)
5 Big garlic cloves, minced.
1 tbsp Minced ginger
4 tbsp Heinz Chili Sauce (pretty close to ketchup, so ketchup will do too)
2 tbsp Tomato pur?e
200 ml Red wine (I used an italian one called Briccotondo because I had a bottle and it's cheap)
500 ml Base sauce (I used the SnS gravy with the small addition of two celery sticks. Those, according to my taste buds, didn't seem to effect the base much, so don't bother)
Some fairly undecooked meat, enough for 2 portions (mutton is my favourite, but you do as you like)
A lot of chopped fresh coriander leaves (adjust to taste, I used about a deciliter worth)

What to do

1. Put a sauce pan with about 400 ml of water on the stove and set to boil.
2. Get started on the chilis (jalape?o, chipotle and anchos). Deseed and chop up. Then thrown them into the boiling water and let it boil without a lid. The longer the better, but I recommend boiling until the water is reduced by half.
3. While the chilis boil, make all other arrengements, mincing garlic, and ginger, for example, and preparing the spice mix.
4. You can test to see if the chilis are done just by chewing a piece of one of the dried ones (chipotle or ancho) to see if it's gone soft. When they are done get the chilis out of the water, but save the water!
5. Gently fry the ginger and the garlic in the oil until brown.
6. Add spices, chili sauce/ketchup, tomato pur?e, fresh coriander and the chili peppers and continue stirring for a minute or two.
7. Add the red wine little by little, stirring as you keep it cooking.
8. When all the wine is added cook to a thick sauce. Then amp up the heat and start adding the chili water and base sauce a little at the time. Keep it simmering constantly.
Note: Depending on how warm the chili water and the base sauce is you can add more or less at a time, so I can't put a good time on the procedure, nor can I tell you how long the vindaloo should cook, if you've made curries before and know how you want your vindaloo in terms of runny vs. thick you'll know when it's done.
9. Add the meat when you've added all the water and base sauce. Towards the end of the cooking add a touch of garam masala. Tasting with salt might be a good idea, and a nice squeeze of lemon is optional but I didn't have any around when I made this and didn't miss it.
10. Serve hot! A good pilau rice, naan and tomatoes are all recommended for a hot vindaloo (as if you didn't already know that). This particular recipe isn't unbearably hot, but it has sting (and of course you can adjust this yourself).

Note: If you don't want red wine in it for whatever reason, vinegar could be used as replacement, or it can be skipped completely. If you use vinegar I suppose about 50-100 ml would do.

Ps. I tried taking some photos with my phone camera, but no matter what settings I used the vindaloo looked blue and disgusting, so pictures will have to wait. The result is pretty thick, gleaming with oil separation and has dark red and brown colour.

Please do give this one a try, I know it's a bit more complicated than the usual BIR fare, what with dried chilis that have to be pre-cooked and adding red wine, but it's really good, take a chance.

Hi and welcome to my first posted recipe. The base used is SnS's base: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2757.0, which doesn't mean that other bases couldn't substitute, but naturally a vastly different base will give other results, great or bad, who knows?

On another side not, while I would say that this is very similar to Tikka Masalas I've had at restaurants, especially my favourite place, keep in mind that I'm Swedish and there might be some stylistic differences. However, just like the BIR CTM's, the ones we get here are sweet and mild and full of flavour, but rarely, as far as I've seen, containing anything coconut.

Now that that's out of the way, let's go:

Chicken Tikka Masala (Serves about 6 very hungry people)


Ingredients:

400 ml base sauce (SnS's in my case)
200 ml tinned chopped plum tomatoes (Italian Napolina)

0,5 l water
1 tsp dried methi
3 bay leaves
Green cardamom pods, a lot of them, about 20. Crush them lightly so that that the seeds are exposed but won't leave.

3-4 fairly large garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced.
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp garam masala *
2 tsps dried coriander leaves
2 tsps dried coriander seeds
2 tsps chili powder
2 tsps ancho style chili powder (sweeter and milder, kashmiri mirch might be a good substitute, but I wouldn't know)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried mint leaves
0,5 tsps cumin
0,25 tsps fenugreek

3-4 dl cashew nuts, finely ground (that's 3-4 dl before you actually grind it)
1 dl of mango chutney
4 tsps lemon juice (Skip it if you want to, just don't nag about it. It doesn't take away any of the sweetness)

Precooked marinated chicken for 6-7 portions, I can't say how much because when I made it I used to little anyway. I also can't give you a good recipe for a marinade because the one I tried wasn't any good, but I suspect you could find a good marinade recipe on here. Next time I will fix these two issues.

Optional: Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing.
Red food colouring (I put some in, but the stuff I had at home is liquid and it seems that the general food colouring on here is powder so you'll just have to figure out how much to put in yourselves.


Method:

Start with putting water, methi, cardamom pods and bay leaves in a saucepan and bringing to a boil. The heat should be lowered slightly after a few minutes and you can let it stand and simmer until you need the stuff, just don't burn anything.

Then fry garlic, ginger and tomato puree gently in butter for about 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn it. Add more butter, make sure you have a fair amount melted butter in there now now, and the spices and keep the gentle frying going until you get what SnS describes as the tofee aroma.

Start adding base, tinned tomatoes and the boiled water (including cardamom, bay leaves and methi) little by little but fairly quickly, meanwhile stirring. Raise the heat and add mango chutney, ground cashews and lemon juice.

Let it simmer until you feel it's just a bit thicker than you want the final result to be. Add chicken and cook for a few minutes. Then add the cream. Unless you feel it's too thick or watery, it should be done as soon as you've got the temperature up again. Otherwise simmer or add water until you get it right. Taste with salt and possibly sugar if your mango chutney doesn't bring enough sweetness. Garnish with coriander leaves if you feel like it. There's also the option of leaving the cardamom pods and bay leaves in, but I think it's a pain to pick all of the cardamom out personally. People in general also seem to enjoy chewing and sucking a bit at the cardamom pods before spitting them out, so it's often worth it leaving them in.

I hope you like it, but either way, tell me what you think. Any suggestions for improvements are welcome, I'm not quite done with this anyway. 




* In case this spice mix looks vastly different in England, it wouldn't surprise me if we Swedes got this messed up, this is what's in it, according to it's packing (from most to least prominent): Cumin, Cardamom, Coriander (probably the seeds), black pepper, clover, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.