Mutton Vindaloo

Merry Christmas to all my fellow bloggers, all the visitors and my friends. May God bless you with lights - lights of knowledge, lights of inner strength, lights of morality, lights of dignity and lights of passion. Christmas remains incomplete without a bite into chocolates. Last two days were fabulously spent with me and my hubby first going on a long drive and chancing upon the famous DeBrand Chocolatier on our way where we spent few good hours indulging in various chocolate based desserts - Hazelnut Mousse with a layer of crispy dark chocolates in the base topped with caramel sauce and Almond flavoured hot chocolate, besides shopping a choice collection of chocolate truffles. Then we started for Flint to watch the Christmas special lightings and decoration in the only place that was open for public viewing during Christmas holidays. On our way we encountered heavy shower of snow and flurries that limited the visibility of outside completely and the risk of car swerving perilously by a sudden brake was looming large at every turn as the roads were covered under thin ice sheets. Somehow driving at minimum speed with best of cautions taken we reached our destination and although we could not step out because of snow falling, we managed to capture some good snaps of the lightings. Some snapshots below:

 

 

 

 

 

Mutton Vindaloo is a popular Goan dish that was first introduced into Goa by the Portuguese who cooked it with a generous amount of wine vinegar and garlic, but due to Goan influence soon lots of chillis and spices took over adding an extra richness to the dish. Traditional vindaloo preparations are cooked without potatoes, but the addition of potatoes came into practice may be because 'aloo' means potato and now an array of restaurants serve vindaloo dishes cooked with potatoes, which personally I like a lot since potatoes increase the flavour of any meat preparation to a great degree.

Ingredients:                                                  Cooking time: 2hours approx. ü  1 kg/2 pound mutton ü  2 potatoes (cut into medium size cubes) ü  1 1/2 medium size onions (ground into paste) ü  1 1/2 medium size onions (julienned) ü  2 tsp garlic paste ü  1 tsp ginger paste ü  5-6 green chillies (ground into paste) ü  1 tsp turmeric powder ü  1 1/2 tsp cumin powder ü  1 1/2 tsp coriander powder ü  1 tsp kashmiri red mirch ü  1 tsp garam masala powder ü  1 tsp cinnamon powder ü  1 tsp black pepper ü  1 1/2 tsp sugar ü  Salt to taste ü  1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (ground into paste) ü  1 tsp poppy seeds (ground into paste) ü  4 tbsp malt vinegar ü  Mustard oil for cooking ü  Ghee For sauté: ü  2 green cardamoms ü  2 brown cardamoms ü  2 bay leaves ü  1 inch cinnamon stick Method: 1) Marinate mutton with onion paste, green chilli paste, malt vinegar, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, kashmiri red mirch, garam masala powder, cinnamon powder, black pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder, yellow mustard paste, poppy paste and sugar. Mix well. Refrigerate for 5-6 hours. 2) Boil potatoes for 5 minutes in microwave. Drain the water and pat the potatoes dry. Heat mustard oil in a wok. Add the potato cubes and shallow fry till potatoes are golden brown in color. Take them off the flame and keep aside. 3) Into the same oil, add the ingredients for sauté and allow them to crackle. Add julienned onion and fry till translucent. 4) Add marinated mutton and cook on medium to low heat/gas mark 5 for half an hour. Add 1 cup of 2 cups of water as per your liking for the consistency of the gravy and continue cooking covered till mutton is tender. 5) Add ghee and toss the fried potatoes into the gravy. Serve hot with paratha or luchi.