The quintessential Goan dish that has transcended borders, Vindaloo! Since I hail from an East Indian heritage, we too have our own version of Pork Vindaloo and to further that this recipe is a tweaked version that my mum has perfected over the years and I have added my own twist to it, hope you like it. Enjoy! Please remember this dish is not for the faint-hearted, its spicy and yummy.


INGREDIENTS
1kg Pork, cubed
100g Kashmiri chili / OR Bedki chili 5 nos. (Basically dried red chillies as spicy as you’d like)
20 cloves garlic
1tsp Pepper corns
12nos Cloves
3nos 1 inch sticks Cinnamon
1tbsp Cumin seeds
3tbsp Synthetic vinegar for grinding
2tbsp cooking oil
Salt to taste
4tbsp Goan Vinegar OR Highly flavoured vinegar
 
PROCEDURE
1. Soak the chillies and garlic cloves in a bowl of lukewarm water for 15 minutes. Wash, drain and pat dry the pork meat.
2. Add the garlic, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, salt and 3-tbsp. of vinegar to a blender, now take each chili out of the water, without draining cut them into 3 pieces into the blender, discard the stocks but keep the water used to soak the chillies. The reason is you want the little water retained in the chili for blending. Blend this at a low speed until it turns into a fine paste, add a table spoon or two of the “chili water” if the consistency is not right during blending.
3. Pour the ‘masala’ or paste on to the pork and let it marinade for at least two hours if not overnight.
4. In a thick bottom vessel put 2-tbsp. of cooking oil and add the pork meat with all the paste into the vessel, bring to a boil stirring occasionally, reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour or till the meat is done and the raw taste of the paste has gone. Add little water after 45 mins or 1/3 the way of cooking if the consistency is too thick, now add the 4-tbsp. of Goan vinegar, adjust seasoning and taste!
6. Add more vinegar if required, the dish should taste spicy, sour and sweet at the same time, serve with bread or over a bed of steamed rice.

VARIATIONS
1. Chicken vindaloo – just add 1kg chicken and cook in 4-tbsp of cooking oil, you can choose to use olive oil, but the taste will alter.
2. Lamb vindaloo – same as the chicken version.
3. Beef vindaloo – same as the lamb version.
4. Fish vindaloo – lightly season the 1 kg fish and fry for 1 minute per side in a pan, cook the curry until the raw taste has gone, about 20 minutes, add the fish and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Prawn vindaloo – cook the curry until done, 20 minutes, add 1kg prawns, bring to a boil and turn off the heat.
6. Veggie vindaloo – add 1 kg mix veggies of your choice after the curry has cooked, 20 minutes, and cook until the veggie are done. You may want to reduce the amount of vinegar as the veggies will not absorb the acid as much as meat does. Ideally use carrot, beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, corn, mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.