Comments on: Meat and Potatoes Goan Style: Beef Vindaloo

By: Beef Eater

Beef Eater — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:15:29 +0000

sounds and looks very delicious, I will definitely have to make this one, thanks.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:04:33 +0000

Harry–this recipe is pretty much an amalgamation of the recipes presented by Julie Sahni in her book, “Classic Indian Cooking,” and Madhur Jaffrey’s “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking,” with techniques I learned from picking the brains of waiters at Akbar Restaurant in Columbia, Maryland, so there is no one source I used to get to this recipe. It makes a vindaloo that tastes about the way it does at Akbar, which is, as far as I can tell, one of the best versions of vindaloo you are going to get outside of Goa.

To be more authentic, marinate the meat as I outline, use red wine vinegar instead of balsamic and if you choose not to use tamarind, double the amount of vinegar.

Also, replace the prepared dijon mustard with a teaspoon of ground brown mustard seeds, while keeping the whole mustard seeds in the recipe. (The prepared mustard idea comes from Madhur Jaffrey, btw–and it really makes the vindaloo taste amazing.)

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:13:40 +0000

Do you have a recipe/link/outline for the original recipe? It sounds good.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:07:30 +0000

Laura–I will look into that recipe–thanks!

Amie–cooking chilies longer makes the food hotter because it extracts more of the chili oils that carry the heat.

Leaving them whole cuts down on the amount of heat released, too–if you cut them in half, for example, they would release more heat–if you sliced or minced them, the amount of heat would be even greater.

Leaving them whole and cooking them for a short time leads to a bit less heat than cooking them longer and cut would.

By: Amie

Amie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:42:37 +0000

Question on the chilis – I don’t cook with them much, so I’m not sure whether putting them in sooner or later will result in hotter or milder finished product. Does cooking the chilis longer make things hotter or does it cook down some of the heat?