Ground Pork Vindaloo

An easy to make recipe for pork vindaloo balances heat and savory notes

Ingredients:

1 white onion

1 ½ cups diced red potatoes (approximately 3 small potatoes)

1 lb ground pork

2 large bay leaves

2 cloves

1 star anise

1” piece cinnamon

oil

salt

1 ½ cups water

Ingredients for Vindaloo Paste:

4 long Kashmiri chilis

4 Guntur Sannam chilies

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds

¾ tsp black peppercorn

3 cardamom pods

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp garam masala

1 tsp Madras curry powder

½ tsp sweet paprika

⅓ cup chopped shallots

1 tbsp ginger, peeled and grated

1 tbsp garlic, crushed

2 tbsp tomato purée

2-3 tbsp white vinegar (based on how tangy you want your vindaloo)

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp brown sugar

3 tbsp water

Instructions for making Vindaloo Paste:

First, place the chilies in a bowl and rehydrate by pouring boiling water over them. Let soak for a few minutes until they soften. If you want to reduce the spiciness of your vindaloo, de-seed the chilies before blending. Another note is that if you are using a spicier chili than the Guntur Sannam variety, you may want to use 2 instead of 4 chilies.

Next, grind the fenugreek seeds, peppercorns, and cardamom into a powder, using a spice or coffee grinder.

Place the rehydrated chilies, ground spice powder, turmeric, garam masala, Madras curry powder, and sweet paprika into a small blender cup along with a splash of the chili water and pulse until the chilies are blended. Add more spoonfuls of water if necessary to blend. It does not have to be a fine paste as you will blend it further with the other ingredients.

Next, add the remaining vindaloo ingredients - shallots, ginger, garlic, tomato purée, vinegar, salt, brown sugar, and water. Blend everything together until it becomes a smooth paste. Set this aside for later.

Instructions for Making the Vindaloo:

Heat a deep sided pan or dutch oven and add a few tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot enough, place in the bay leaves, cloves, star anise and cinnamon. As soon as the spices become fragrant, add in your finely chopped onion with a sprinkle of salt.

Sauté until onions become lightly golden. Then, place in the ground pork and cook, stirring often to break the meat into small chunks. Continue cooking until the meat is 3/4s of the way cooked and there is still some liquid released from the onion and meat.

At this stage, add in the diced potatoes, stir, cover and cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Then, uncover and stir, before covering and cooking for an additional 2 minutes.

Then, take the onion/ground pork/potato mixture out of the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, pour in about 3 tbsp of oil. Once the oil is heated, add the Vindaloo spice paste. Stir and cook the spice paste on medium heat until it begins to darken in color and become fragrant.

At that stage, add the ground pork, onion, potato mixture you had set aside and stir everything together. Pour in 1 ½ cups water and stir to combine. Taste for salt/sugar balance and add more of either if necessary.

Lower the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer together for at least 10 minutes, uncovering occasionally to stir. Once all the flavors are combined, take off the heat and serve with Indian bread of your choice or over rice.

Note: I used Spicewall brand garam masala and Madras curry powder

Recipe by Veda Sankaran

Jalsa By Veda