Is there no end to the purposes that food can be put to? This week I read about a clever grassroots/community campaign called Vindalooagainstviolence. Concerned about the violence against Indians in Melbourne a young couple have called upon Melburnians to show their support for immigrant communites – particularly the Indian community—by heading out to their favourite Indian restaurant for a meal on 24^th February 2010.

Despite the campaign name there is no compulsion to order a vindaloo as part of the meal but me thinks that there will be a lot of vindaloo consumed all the same.  I thought I might be able to add to the campaign by offering up a recipe for an authentic vindalho (don’t get caught up with the spelling of the name both cases are acceptable).

Vindalho is a dish native to Goa and it is product of the Portuguese colonization of that part of India in the 16^th century. The Portuguese that introduced chillies to India —after Columbus brought them back from the Americas — and the vinegar which features in this dish. Prior to arrival of the chilli Indians had added heat to their food with black pepper and ginger amongst other spices.

The vindaloo you get in an Indian restaurant in Melbourne is likely to be cooked by someone of Punjabi/northern Indian origin and is quite different to that which you would find in a Goan home. So go out and show your support and ‘vindaloo against’ racism and racism fuelled violence on Wednesday but I challenge you to take it further and cook this vindalho for some friends/family some time soon.

If nothing else read the recipe as it provides a couple of essential lessons in Indian cookery and  food culture and you can impress your friends with these insights on Wednesday.

The inspiration for my version of vindalho comes from  The Essential Goa Cookbook by Maria Teresa Menezes, Penguin Books India.

Chicken Vindalho

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 tsp salt or to taste

½ tsp brown sugar

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp red chili powder (or to taste)

I tsp finely ground black pepper

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

I kg chicken pieces

5 -6 tablespoons vegetable oil or use coconut oil if you prefer

1 tsp cumin seeds

8 cloves

3 inch piece of cinnamon

2 medium red onions

10 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and ground/grated to paste

1 tablespoon garlic paste*

additional white wine vinegar

* I make a creamy sweet garlic paste by putting a whole head of garlic into the oven and roasting it until the garlic is soft. When it is cooled slice the top off the head and squeeze the garlic out into a bowl. It should be a paste in of itself but if not blend with a fork until it is smooth. You could also crush raw garlic to create a paste. Please don’t use garlic paste out of a jar or tube it tastes of the preservative that has been mixed with it to allow it to sit on the supermarket shelf for weeks or months.

Method

Blend ½  of the salt, sugar, ground turmeric, chilli powder and black pepper powder to a paste with the vinegar in a large bowl. Put the chicken pieces into the bowl and coat with the paste. Leave the chicken to marinate in this paste in the refrigerator preferably overnight or three hour at the least.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy based frypan over a medium high heat and brown the chicken pieces on both sides in the hot oil. This should only take a few minutes on each side. You do not need to cook the chicken through as it will be cooked in the sauce. What you want to do at this point is to seal and build up a bit of flavour by browning it. Drain the cooked chicken pieces on paper towel.

Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of the oil into a deep sided casserole type dish or heavy based saucepan for which you have a lid (I use an round Le Cruset  cocotte). If you were me you would strain the oil that you cooked the chicken — and in doing do infused it with flavour — add that to pan. If you weren’t me and you have issues about continuing to use oil that you have just infused with a whole lot of flavour then you might need to add another tablespoon of plain oil (the finished dish won’t taste quite as good but that’s your call).

Heat the oil over a medium high heat. When the oil is hot drop in the cumin seeds, cloves and cinnamon. Stir for 30 seconds then add the onion. Continue stirring the onion for two minute then add the ginger and the other ½ tsp of salt. Stir until the onion caramelises slightly. If this mixture is sticking to the pan add a little bit of water and stir. This is a common cooking technique in India and it allows food to be cooked using small amounts of oil (despite the rich heavy food typically served in Indian restaurants much of the food cooked in Indian homes is light and fresh thanks in part to this cookery practice). The water provides a medium for the food to cook in and it evaporates so the food does not become watery. Continue cooking stirring periodically until the onion is softened.

Mix the garlic paste with two tablespoons of vinegar and stir into the onion mix (adding the vinegar to the paste allows it to assimilate smoothly into the dish). Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat with the mix. What is going to happen now is that you are going to out a lid on the dish and turn it down low and continue to let it cook.  You will need to gauge whether you might need to add a little water. You want this to be ‘dry’ dish  so you don’t want a lot of liquid but it will need some liquid to cook in. I can’t give you an exact amount but it should be no more than enough to just barley cover the chicken pieces. If you are using a cast iron or heavy good quality stainless vessel this should be enough but if you are using bough from the supermarket type cookware —which generally doesn’t conduct heat as well —you will need to keep a close eye on this dish during the cooking time to ensure it doesn’t burn/stick to the bottom of the pot. You may need to add more water also particularly if the lid is a tight fit.

In an ideal world of lovely cookware what will happen is that the meat will steam and stew in the liquid. This will cause the meat to absorb some of the liquid and some of it will evaporate leaving you with a moist but dryish dish , i.e., its not meant to be wet like a stew although there are versions of vindalho/vindaloo that are.

Cooking time should be about 30-40 minutes again depending on your cookware. Low and slow (low heat over a longer time) is best. I like to cook this dish until the meat starts to come away from the bone and to do this I usually need to add a little more water so that is doesn’t dry out too much.

The traditional accompaniment to this vindalho is a fried bread called (recipe below). In India dry dishes are typically eaten with bread and wet dishes are eaten with rice

Oddé

The authentic Goan version of this recipe uses toddy, an alcoholic drink made from the fermented sap collected from either various species of palm or coconut trees. Once taken the sap ferments quickly so it sold not far from where it was made in ‘toddy shops’. Left to ferment for too long and it turns into vinegar hence it is not often found too far from the tropical coastal regions of India. Given the limitations on obtaining toddy I have suggested a substitute of yeast, water and sugar. You might also like to try using ½ cup of a stout or another sweetish beer (toddy is 4% alcohol content so its not unlike beer in that respect). If you can obtain toddy then use ½ cup in place of the yeast/ water/sugar mix

2 cups whole wheat flour*

1 cup white flour

½ cp rice flour

a 7g sachet dry yeast or equivalent fresh

tepid water

a pinch of salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp melted ghee or  vegetable oil

oil for deep frying

* Use atta obtained from an Indian grocery store if possible. It is whole wheat flour but its lighter than the whole wheat flour used outside of India. If you can’t get atta then use 1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour and 1 ½ plain flour along with the rice flour  to achieve a comparable result.

Method

Mix the yeast with a pinch of sugar from the teaspoon specified and enough tepid water to create ½ cup if liquid. Cover and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes or until the mix starts to bubble.

Sift the flours, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub the ghee or oil into the four mix Make a well in the centre and pour in the ghee or oil. Add the yeast mix/beer/toddy  and enough water to make a firm dough.

Leave to stand for one hour

Knead dough again and roll out to 1/8 thickness. 

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Cut out rounds of dough with a large cutter about  10 cm/3-4 inches in diameter and deep fry the rounds. Gently push the oddé around a little while frying and lift a little oil over the surface – they should puff up. odde while frying – they should puff out well.

Drain on paper towel and serve hot with the vindalho.

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