Spicy, Tangy, Indian Perfection

My Indian food fanatic and salsa partner in crime called me last week to tell me he couldn't go to New York with me (and I didn't even end up going), but that he would be free to make Indian food again if I wanted. I took the hint and it took us all of two seconds to decide on vindaloo, as we are both spice fiends. A couple minutes online coupled with his fantastically authentic Indian cookbook purchased at one of those expensive kitchen places like William-Sonoma, and the menu was set: Chicken Vindaloo, Nimona with Lentil Dumplings, and Wild Rice Pulao. My friend got put in charge of chutney again, this time, a coconut chutney which I don't have the recipe for and I threw together a very basic cilantro raita which isn't worth posting here when I have so much to say about the stars of the show. I am of the firm belief that all good spicy Indian meals should have a tangy chutney and a good raita to balance the palate.


Anyway, the dish that made the whole venture worth it was the Chicken Vindaloo. For those who don't know, this dish is a marriage of Portuguese and Indian flavors, and it is a beautiful marriage of tangy and spicy. This would work well with lamb or goat or beef or pork as well, but make sure you use a cut of meat that stands up well to long slow cooking, like pork leg or the stew meat. I don't think I would change a single thing in this recipe.


A couple hours before you want to actually eat, take about 1 1/2 pounds of boneless chicken thigh meat (fat trimmed) and cubed it and set it aside while you make the marinade. Since I have all the Indian spices on hand, this marinade took me literally 3 minutes to make. Take 6 cardamon seeds, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 4 dried red chiles (I used the kind you get at the latin markets), 1 tsp whole cloves, 4 inch cinnamon stick roughly broken, 1 tsp cumin seeds, and 1/2 tsp coriander seeds and ground them all together in a clean coffee grinder. I have a coffee grinder dedicated to spices. Believe me, fresh whole spices make so much difference in Indian cooking. Then, I mixed the ground spices with 1/2 tsp ground turmeric and 5 tbsp apple cider vinegar in a non-reactive bowl. Throw in the cubed chicken, toss, and let marinate for at least an hour. Mine marinated for almost 3 hours.

After (or while) the chicken marinates, finely slice 2 onions (think long and paper thin slices), 10 big garlic cloves, and a 2 inch piece of ginger (think matchstick-like when slicing). Roughly chope 3 ripe tomatoes, and 4 green chilis. This slicing takes a while and I always do it by hand. I used a huge skillet for cooking everything. Saute the onions until golden brown, then add the garlic and ginger and cook until the garlic is golden brown, and finally add the tomato and chili. I let the tomatos break down a little, and then created a round opening in the center of the skillet, turned up the heat a little, threw all of the marinated chicken in the center and let the outsides sear a bit. Then I added 1 cup of water and the leftover marinade liquid and 1 tsp raw sugar and stirred everything together. Reduce the heat, cover tightly and let simmer for about 45 minutes. For the last 10-15 minutes, cook with the lid off to release any extra liquid so its not too runny. Season with salt at the very end and voila! Garnish with fresh cilantro. This makes four generous servings, athough you'll want to eat more. Use chicken breast for a healthier option, although the chicken thigh is wonderfully moist.

I always like to accompany meat dishes with a nice healthy vegetarian side dish. I had some peas and lentils on hand already, and I remembered seeing an interesting recipe for a dish called Nimona, which I had never heard of before, on Mahanandi. This recipe used spring peas and also dried lentil dumplings, which are apparantly quite hard to find and so she subbed in potatos. I decided that the Lentil Dumplings sounded good enough that I would try to make my own since I didn't have time to hunt down these dried lentil dumplings.


This was quite a prep intensive dish and I found it best to prep everything beforehand and then make the lentil dumplings first. The only alteration to the way I would make this recipe again would be to keep the lentil dumplings separate and serve the pea and tomato mixture OVER the dumplings rather than mixing the dumplings in. Since the dumplings are a little delicate, half of them broke apart when I stirred everything together, but it still tasted wonderful.


The lentil dumplings were pretty easy to make, and I liked having them cooked in a different way than the typical boiling or pureeing cooked lentils. Take 1/2 cup of lentils (I used red split lentils) and soak for 2-3 hours. Pulse in a food chopper with 1 red chili, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 cup of finely chopped onion, and a dash of salt. You want a nice coarse paste. I actually ended up adding a little extra water to get mine to look properly pasty, then microwaved the paste for about 30 seconds to get it to a proper stage of mushiness for forming the dumplings. Then, take the paste and form small lemon shaped balls about the size of a whole walnut and place the balls in a steaming basket. You want to steam these for 7-8 minutes -- its pretty cool, the dumplings get bigger in the basket so be sure to have enough space to accomodate for the growth. Then, while I prepped everything else, I stuck the whole steaming basket (mine is metal) in the oven on very low, like 300 degrees, for about 25 minutes so they would get a nice crust.

Then, In a big pan, saute and add in this order:
2 bay leaves
A puree made of 2 onions, 3 garlic cloves, 1 inch ginger, and 1/4 cup cilantro
A puree made of 4 tomatoes
1 cup of mashed peas
1 cup of whole peas
[this is where I added the lentil dumplings, but I see my note above]
2 cloves, 2 cardamon seeds, and 1 small cinnamon stick powdered together
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup water [see how watery your tomatoes are, mine were very juicy so I didn't need much water]

Stir together then let simmer for about 15 minutes on medium heat covered. Then let sit another 15-20 minutes for the flavors to blend. This was the perfect pairing with the vindaloo. It was spicy and flavorful so it held up well on its own and wasn't overpowered by the vindaloo, but it was mild enough that you didn't feel like your mouth was on fire the entire meal. My salsa partner in crime ended up taking ALL of the leftovers, and this makes a lot of Nimona, and eating them the next day. I say this makes 4 servings, but this is 4 meal-sized servings. Its more like 8 side dish servings...


And last, but certainly not least, Wild Rice Pulao. I didn't cheat this time like I did with the Aromatic Rice. I cannot recommend the Aromatic Rice recipe since, well, I cheated on that one. I won't even link to it because its so, well, lazy. This turned out pretty well, but probably could have used little more cumin.


Take 1/8 tsp saffron threads (mine I bought for ridiculously cheap in Cambodia and brought back with me) and 1/8 tsp ground turmeric and let steep in 3 cups of boiling water. Saute 2 finely chopped shallots in 1 tbsp canola oil until golden brown. Then add 1 small cinnamin stick, 2 whole cloves, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1 tbsp ground cumin, and 1 clove garlic finely minced, 5 cardamon seeds. Cooke for 3 or 4 minutes to release the flavors and then add 2 1/4 cups wild rice and saute for 10 minutes. It is important to stir constantly so it doesn't stick. Then add 1/2 cup greek yogurt, the saffron/turmeric water, and 1 tsp sea salt. Cover the pot with a dish towel and then place the lid on top. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 45 minutes. Let sit covered for 10 minutes with the lid on after you remove it from heat. Remove the cinnamin sticks, cloves, and cardamon seeds before serving. Makes 6 generous servings.