Delicious Pork Vindaloo

This quick and easy dish is often known as Vindaloo (pron: vin-daa-loo or even vin-dal-oh). It contains no water. And requires slow cooking, so that the spices get right into the meat. In India, this dish is mostly unknown except in areas such as Goa, Mumbai, Karnataka. Other than that, most Indians may never run into a vindaloo, despite its apparent popularity outside India. Which of course means that most of the vindaloo you've eaten is a weird version of the dish.

Serves: 6 to 8
Active Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Comments: 9
Views: 5092
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Wash the meat. Pat dry.
Cut meat into square cubes (two inch cubes)
Grind ginger and garlic.
Mix the ground ginger, garlic, onion, salt sugar, spice powders (cumin, turmeric and chilli), kashmiri chillies, with about 4 tablespoons of vinegar.
Marinate mixture for about 12 hours in the fridge (though in some cases, I've marinated for less than an hour, with no perceptible difference in taste).
(All of this above should take you no more than 30 minutes, including cutting the meat).

For 1 kg pork (about 2.2 pounds)
2 medium onions (finely chopped)
A pinch of salt.
A pinch of sugar.
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
White Vinegar
8-10 dried red Kashmiri chillies (optional, but desirable for a nice red colour)
1 pod garlic
2 inch piece of ginger

After the 12 hour marination process, remove the mixture, put in a pan, and let it get to room temperature (if you have the time).
Cook it on low heat till juices exude. Stir occasionally, to prevent meat from sticking. Continue cooking for about 30-40 minutes, adding a tablespoon of vinegar from time to time.
When the meat is half done, add the whole spices (peppercorn, cinnamon, cloves). Cook for about 3/4-1 hour on a low flame, and taste the gravy. You may want to add more salt for taste.

An hour later (and mostly unsupervised) you've got a delicious dish.

Serve with hot white rice, or bread.

8 cloves
10 peppercorns
3 inch piece of cinammon broken into pieces

Notes

There are many ways to make the dish. This is the quickest I've found. Before I post the details, I want you to know that while I am giving you specifics (e.g. 10 peppercorns) I just chuck stuff into the dish. I'm not averse to throwing in 20 peppercorns or whatever number drops into my hand. And the dish I've made is random at best, but turns out delicious every single time. So if you don't have any of the ingredients, don't get stressed out. Try and get what you can, and take a stab at the dish. It's simple. And tasty.

All this slow cooking shrinks the pork. So while you start out with a sizable amount, it kinda shrinks. Therefore I tend to use 2 or 2.5 kilos, (about 4 pounds or more) to make a dish. Don't worry about it being too much. It will be a big hit and your biggest problem will be that it will be eaten too quickly.

Rouxbe Staff

What cut of pork do you use....

This looks great. Will try it for sure. Just wondering what cut of pork you use.

by Joe G
Thursday, Jan 1, 2009
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I use pork shoulder...but leg is fine too.

Here's a second option if you want a rich, thick red gravy. I'm posting it here, and also will post it later in the Test Kitchen. My mother in law uses the recipe below, and it turns out great as well. The one I posted earlier can turn slightly milder, and the one below is quite different in taste and texture. The red chillies (dry) are critical to the colour and texture. If you want it milder, remove the seeds in the chillies.

Pork Vindaloo
Serves 6
Marinate Overnight
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Quantities as per kilo of pork. I'll often cook two or three kilos and adjust the ingredients accordingly. Yes, if you truly want the colour and texture, 3 kilos of pork will need 60 chillies (though once you de-seed them they simply add colour and not heat.

1 kg pork (shoulder)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric
20 dry red chillies
4 cardamoms (optional)
10 flakes garlic
2 inch piece ginger
10 cloves
2 inch piece cinnamon
1/2 cup vinegar
6 tsp mustard oil (or any other oil that's handy)
8 flakes garlic (sliced)

1 inch ginger (sliced)
2 onions (sliced)
Salt to taste

Wash meat in weak vinegar (one part vinegar and three parts water).
Cut into 3 inch pieces. Grind all spices with the vinegar. Marinate the meat in ground spices, add salt and leftover vinegar and leave overnight.

Heat oil, add sliced onions, ginger and garlic and saute till onions are soft
Add marinade and meat and cook on a slow fire in a tightly covered vessel until meat is tender.

Serve hot.

by Sean D
Friday, Jan 2, 2009
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This was sublime

We had guests over and EVERYONE JUST LOVED this dish; I toned down the chillies to 6 dried red chilies, not Kashmiri because I couldn't find the red Kashmiri chilies, maybe in NYC, I could find it but chef's spice stores are not my turf in Montreal (which is where I was celebrating the holiday with the BF). Anyway, everyone just loved it. I will make it with more chilies next time, it wasn't really hot enough for me. But I am so grateful for the recipe. You are an angel, doll, sweetie for sharing it with us. Our guests and I thank you from the bottoms of our full bellies!!!

by Julie N
Sunday, Jan 4, 2009
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You're welcome...

Glad you liked it. You may also want to try the one I just posted a few days ago. It's different in texture and colour. And using red chilli (especially without seeds) gives rich colour to the dish.

If you want the dish to be be hotter, use hot green chilli (I don't get hot green chilli locally, so I use frozen green chilli which are just as good). As a benchmark, use red chilli for the colour and texture, and green chilli (or any other hot chilli or chilli powder) for the heat.

by Sean D
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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Montreal Stores for Indian Spices

I don't know if this helps, because I've never been to Montreal, but I found this in a random search online.

http://www.mastindia.com/montreal/mgrocers.html

These stores will either sell Kashmiri chillies and hot green chillies. Or know where to find them.

by Sean D
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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Another trick...

Find an Indian grocery, or restaurant, and ask them where they get their supplies from, and you'll have an answer.

by Sean D
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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Thanks

I cut and pasted the link and found one close to our apartment in downtown Montreal. Should have done a web search myself.

by Julie N
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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Chicken instead of pork?

Hi,
I love indian food, but have never managed to make a decent Tikka Masala. I will try this one, but is it possible to subsitute the pork with chicken?

And... do you have a tikka masala recipe?

Thanks for the recipe!

by Lucas H
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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Hmmm, it is possible I think

I'm pretty sure there are Chicken Vindaloos which have the same sort of ingredients. I don't know what I'd remove or substitute, so maybe you can take a shot at substituting about 2 kg chicken for the pork, and see how it turns out.

I don't know why, but I seem to think you'll need twice as much chicken (e.g 2 kg) for every 1 kg pork that I've suggested.

by Sean D
Monday, Jan 5, 2009
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What is a Marinade?	How to Prepare a Marinade	Preparing to Marinate	Combination Cooking \| Slow and Low	The Importance of Connective Tissue
Rinsing & Soaking Rice	Ratios of Liquid to Rice	Resting & Serving Rice	The Anatomy of Whole Grains	Rice Anatomy & Processing
The Advantages of Short Stock	Making Chicken Pan Sauce or Gravy	How to Bread Foods	What is Gluten?	The Importance of a Sharp Knife
The Rolling Technique	Cutting with a Chef's Knife	How to Make Gravy for Turkey	How to Buy and Prepare Garlic	What is Turmeric?

How to Marinate Foods	Combination Cooking Fundamentals	Cooking Rice \| Steaming & Boiling Methods
How to Cook Grains	Rice Basics	How to Make Short Stock
Enhancing Basic Roast Chicken	How to Bread & Batter Foods	Wheat & Gluten
Knife Sharpening with a Whetstone	Handling a Chef's Knife

Delicious Pork Vindaloo

Step 1: Marinate the Pork

Step 2: Cooking the Pork Over a Low Flame