Chicken Vindaloo

 I can not cook vegetarian dishes well. I mean seriously...I just mess up everything. So lately I have given up, and made peace with the fact that I can cook awesome non-vegetarian dishes but I really suck in veg foods. The final episode of my veg-cooking trial ended with making posto bora / poppy seed fritters. They didn't come out the way, my mother used to make. The outcome was simply devastating. Whenever I cook something I always try to relate the taste with my mother's cooking. Aren't we all??? I think everyone does that.

However, to make up my ruined lunch my husband bought home Poulet Pimante. Poulet Pimante is an African street food. It is basically the grilled Piri Piri Chicken. I poured the sauce over my couscous and had a lovely lovely dinner. It feels good to have food cooked by someone else, for a change...:)

I cooked this Chicken Vindaloo a while back, because I wanted to have something different, apart from the spicy Bengali or Mughlai Chicken Curries. Vindaloo is a Portugese dish, which came to Goa with the Portugese colonists and eventually became a Goan staple.  Its a little tangy, sweet and spicy, all at the same time. The tomato puree that I have used in this recipe is optional. So if you don't have tomato, still you can make Chicken Vindaloo, because other ingredients of this recipe are so much available in an Indian pantry. Also do not limit yourself with just chicken, traditionally Vindaloo is prepared with pork. So give a try!!

Chicken Vindaloo
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken with bone
• 2 medium onions - chopped
• 2 ripe tomatoes - pureed
• 6 fat cloves of garlic
• ginger paste - 1 tbsp
• 10 green / red chilies
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 medium cinnamon stick
• 2 dry red chili
• 4-5 cardamom pods
• 4 cloves
• 1 and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/4 cup palm vinegar
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Method:

• Dry roast the whole spices i.e. black peppercorns, mustard seeds, dry red chili, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods, until they become fragrant. Let them cool and then grind them to a fine powder.
• Now make smooth paste with half of the garlic, ginger and all of the green / red chilies with vinegar.
• Marinate the chicken with this smooth garlic-chili paste, salt and spice mix, for at least 1 hour.
• When the marination is done, heat oil in a pan.
• Add the chopped onions and sauté until the start to brown.
• Now add the remaining ginger and garlic paste. Sauté until the onions become golden brown. By then, the raw flavor of the ginger and garlic will be gone.
• Now add the pureed tomato and cook till oil starts to float on top of it. You will know it is done when the mixture will no longer smell like tomato.
• Add salt, sugar, red chili powder and turmeric powder. Mix well. Remember, that, we have already added salt in the marination paste. So, don't go overboard.
• Now add the chicken pieces along with its marination paste and cook until they are nicely brown from both the sides and are half done.
• Now add 1 and 1/2 cup of water and put cover.
• Cook till the chicken are cooked thoroughly. 
• Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Put off the flame when the gravy reaches your desired consistency and oil starts to ooze out of it.