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Pork Vindaloo is Portuguese Indian-style curry made with arrays of aromatic spices and characterized by its piquant, savory and lightly sweet taste. This one-pot dish tastes even better the next day.
After 7 years of having to look at our ugly front yard (and backyard, but let’s talk about the front first!), I finally decided I wasn’t going to put up with this anymore! I had tried HARD to beautify our front yard to no avail! This is one of the topics that often got me heated up when I talked to hubby. He is a great husband and father to our kids, but he is not a DIY person (and nothing’s wrong with that!). And I cannot do our entire front yard on my own without some sort of heavy machinery to tear out old grass and laying out new sods! I would rather be punished to make French macarons or thousand layer cake over and over until our oven exploded (if it ever comes to that!)
Since we (I) have decided I don’t want to look at an ugly front yard for the next 10 years of my life living in this house, the first contractor came to examine our front yard this morning, getting measurements and will give me quotes on sodding and some landscape makeover! I can feel this butterfly in my stomach imagining a makeover this lawn going to get. I’m excited. I can’t wait! I truly hope this project will move forward and won’t put a huge hole to our pockets!
I just got done cooking this pork vindaloo when the contractor came over to look at our ugly-but-hopeful front yard. That’s why I have to vent a little bit about our front yard situation. Anyway, sometimes you will hear vindaloo is referred to as Goan Vindaloo, originated from the Goa region in India. The beautiful vibrant color of vindaloo is rendered from chili and turmeric. Vindaloo is best when you make it the day before and they taste even better the next day or days after. It might be a scary scene to you to see some of the oil is floating on top of the vindaloo dish, however, the oil is there for reason. It is to “protect” the flavor of the dish and to prevent it from drying out. Serve this with some plain white rice or even flat bread and you will be impressed!
Recipe is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick and Easy Indian cooking cookbook.
Pork Vindaloo
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lb pork shoulder/butt cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
- 3 Tbsp cooking oil
- 1 small onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 inch seedless tamarind + 2 Tbsp of hot water
- 2 large potatoes peeled and cut into medium-size chunks
- 2 Tbsp jaggery sugar or brown sugar
- Salt to taste
Spices:
- 30 dried Kashmiri chili or sub with 6 Tbsp of Kashmiri chili powder or dried chili de arbol
- 2 Tbsp mustard seeds
- 3 cardamom pods
- 5 cloves
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground powder
Instructions
- Pick the stem off the Kashmiri chili and place the Kashmiri chilis in a spice grinder and grind into a powder. Rub the pork pieces with half of the kashmiri chili powder, cumin, turmeric, and salt and let it marinade for 30 minutes (or overnight if you prefer)Preheat a large heavy-bottomed pot with oil. Add in the mustard seeds and fry until they start popping. Add in the cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick and saute for about 1 minute. Add in the onion and saute until they are soft, about 1 minute. Add in the garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Add in the kashmiri chili powder you made earlier. Add in the pork and cook for another 3 minutes. Pour in the water, cider vinegar and tamarind juice and the paste. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat, cover and let it simmer for 1 hour or until the pork is really tender. Add the potatoes (if using) in the last 30 minutes. Stir in the sugar. Have a taste, it should be spicy, savory, tangy and lightly sweet. If you make this for the next day. Let it cool down and store in the refrigerator and reheat it the next day. It taste so much more better the next day.
Marv's Recipe Notes
- You can also put the mustard seeds and grind it in a spice grinder with the Kashmiri chili if you like. I kinda like them whole
- You can also substitute pork with other meat like chicken, beef, or even seafood like fish
The cardamom pods I used is not the green cardamom pods like you typically seen in Indian cooking. My mom brought me those cardamoms from Indonesia. They have very similar aroma.
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