After living in India for a while, one would notice the European influence in India. One would really appreciate their past presence over the Indian state of Goa, a once Portuguese ruled province. Somewhere after you fall in love with Goa’s history, heritage, its architecture, churches, beaches and its cheap booze you will take all that love and give it to Goa’s Food. Again, heavily influenced by Portuguese cuisine, we see things like spicy chorizo sausage and pork curries cooked with beans. They even brought down Cafreal with them from Africa.
One of my favorite Goan dishes, after Sorpotel, is the spicy, oily yet absolutely delicious curry, Vindaloo.
I’ll get to Sorpotel another day, it’s extremely time consuming! But Vindaloo, according to old trusty wikipedia is, ” Vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese dish ‘carne de vinha d’alhos,’ a dish of meat, usually pork marinated in wine and garlic.” Hence, ‘Vin’ meaning wine and ‘aloo’, garlic. Vindaloo uses vinegar, chilies, garlic and sometimes the pork is substituted with chicken or beef. The meat is marinated, then the curry is cooked. The Vindaloo is then left for at least three days to pickle, this is the most crucial step and improves on the flavor of the dish.
Now like any Goan Recipe, every family has its own version, and every version is supposed to be the better one. I have taken this recipe and adapted it from my Aunt’s, Rita DeSouza, cookbook which in my opinion makes the best Vindaloo…
You will need:
First up, we need to take the first set of ingredients, i.e from the Kashmiri Chilies to the salt, and grind them and then make a paste. Before you start grinding, slit the Kashmiri Chilies and remove their seeds.
If you do find the dish too hot, serve it with a milk based accompaniment. Water will just spread the capsaicin oil from the chilies around your pallet, while lactic acid will actually take the compounds down with them. So you may want to keep some Yogurt at hand.
Goan Cuisine is quite exceptional, a fusion of Portuguese cooking with Indian flavors and spices. It is strange recipes like these, with an interesting origin and a challenge to cook, that make it a unique experience on the table and especially in the kitchen.
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