Pork Vindaloo

A well spiced and rich curry

Course Meal

Keyword Birdseye Pepper, Thai Pepper

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 45

Total Time 2

Servings servings

Calories 549kcal

Ingredients

For the pork’s marinade

1 heaped teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 heaped tablespoons paprika
6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
6 green cardamom pods finely ground, seeds and all
6 cloves finely ground
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
2 heaped teaspoons ground coriander
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon ground fenugreek
2 teaspoons mustard seeds finely ground – I used black mustard seeds but yellow will be fine.
1 heaped teaspoon ground black pepper

For the pork and the sauce

4 fresh red bird’s eye chilies or Thai chilies, sliced into ¼-inch thick discs, seeds and all. The ones I used were each about 2 inches long.
1 ¾ pounds Boston butt a.k.a. pork shoulder or neck, cut into 1 ½-inch cubes
1 pound red cherry tomatoes halved
1 pound yellow onions peeled, halved and cut into 1/3-inch slices
10 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced
1 heaped tablespoon fresh ginger root finely grated, skin and all
1 tablespoon tamarind paste diluted in 8 tablespoons boiling water
8 dried lime leaves
1 tablespoon jaggery or palm sugar
3 tablespoons coconut oil I used the odorless, cooking variety
2 tablespoons full-fat salted butter
2 heaped teaspoons ground sea salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Making the pork’s marinade, and marinating the pork

This is really easy. In a bowl that’s easily big enough to hold all the pork, mix together all the marinade’s ingredients.
Add the cubed pork, and use your fingers to give the pork a really thorough coating of marinade.
Set the bowl aside and let it sit – with the occasional stir – while you prep and begin cooking the sauce.

Cooking your pork vindaloo

You only need one pot for this, so use one that’s big enough to hold all your vindaloo’s ingredients. I used a big, cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid. A big, saucepan with a good lid will be just as good.
So, set your big pot onto a medium-high heat and add the coconut oil and butter. As soon as the buttery oil starts foaming, stir in the onions and drop the heat to medium-low. You want to gently fry the onions so that they soften and begin to pick up a pale golden color all over. With a few watchful stirs, that will take about 7 minutes on that medium-low heat.
Stir in the garlic and keep frying for another 2 minutes. The onions will darken a little more as you fry them with the garlic – that’s grand.
Now add the halved cherry tomatoes and let the whole lot fry with a few encouraging stirs for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes soften and begin to lose their body.
Once the tomatoes have softened, stir in the chilies and ginger and fry for another minute.
Now add the pork and all its marinade. Give the pot a thorough stir so everything gets mixed together, and then stir in the tamarind paste (together with all the water in which you dissolved it), the jaggery or palm sugar, and salt.
Drop the heat to low, cover the pot and let it simmer gently for 60 minutes. You’re aiming to keep the pot just barely bubbling at that slow simmer, so check that keeps happening and stir the pot to prevent the sauce from sticking. There’s not a lot of liquid in the sauce, so be careful to maintain a slow, gentle simmer beneath the lid.
After 60 minutes, remove the lid, and let the pot simmer on its low heat for another 30 minutes. This will help thicken the sauce even more – but it does mean you need to give the pot a few stirs, making sure that nothing sticks to the base.
That’s it. Your vindaloo is done and is ready to be served.

Notes

A couple of suggestions to go with your pork vindaloo:

I served mine with some butter naan (the easy, convenient sort that comes frozen in a pack) and a garlicky spinach.

That sort of naan just needs to be defrosted and heated hot-and-fast in a big, dry skillet – just like it says on the pack.

As for the spinach, melt a level tablespoon of butter in a medium size saucepan and gently fry a couple of thinly sliced garlic cloves over low heat until they pick up a little color. Then pack in the spinach, sprinkle it with a level teaspoon salt, cover the pan and let the spinach wilt for about 3 minutes on that low heat. Give the pan a good stir and the spinach is ready to serve.

Nutrition