vindaloo

alrighty. So while I get my act together to make idli sambhar, in the meantime I've been making other curries. The latest is chicken-prawn vindaloo.

Thing is, I can't seem to find tomato paste at the local Wellcome and don't have the time to go to Jason's (imported goods fancy supermarket) - it's rather far away and I work an odd schedule. I figured it would be available - seems like the sort of thing that would be easy to get in Taiwan.

I can just make it without tomato paste, right? I have tons of fresh tomatoes. Or any substitution suggestions?

Also, it's been a year since I've made vindaloo. I can't remember if I should add mustard seeds. One recipe online says yes, the other says no. Ideas?

(x-posted on the India branch)

I'm not the curry expert. Mrs Faz is but, exhausted by the latest family visit, she has gone to bed.
But as we all know vindaloo is from the Portuguese time in India and the word comes from vinegar and garlic. Marinading the pork (or chicken-prawn) in this is the defining difference. Black mustard seeds - yes. Chilllllllllllllllis of course; plus a number of other spices: cardamons, cinnamon or cassia, fenugreek, etc.
I don't think Mrs Faz puts any tomato in at all. If you are going to add tomato, cook the fresh tomatoes separately until well reduced.
I hope this helps. But, as I said, I am not the curry expert here

When I make curries at home I tend not to think in terms of classic recipes like Vindaloo, Madras etc. So I make about one in five sauces without tomatoes or without garlic just to ring the changes. Recipes which call for coconut milk tend not to need tomato. Sometimes I taste a sauce in progress and it needs some more tomato or some tamarind to acidulate the sauce for that essential tang.

I tend to follow the three spicings formula, tasting and adjusting as I go. Whole peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, cassia bark, fenugreek, kalonji seed, whole jeera, whole fennel plus garam marsala, sometimes star anise and crushed fresh ginger go in at stage one. Midway I taste and adjust the spicing. Finally I add ground elaichi powder, ground cinammon, methi leaves and asafoetida at the end.

Usually I know when to use tomato and when not to - just made a nice Bengali curry with coconut milk and mustard oil and of course didn't need to add it, but making a vindaloo without a base of onion and tomato seems strange.

It's chicken and prawn, not pork, because chicken and prawns were on sale at Wellcome, and anyway I wanted to try it with less expensive meat before I really committed to making a good vindaloo in Taiwan. It's like learning all over again.

I always put tomatoes - a few fresh ones, and a little paste - into my vindaloo in the USA. I've lost my Indian recipe file somewhere in the move and looking online, half of what I find calls for tomatoes, the other half doesn't. My old file recipe called for tomatoes, but I'm perfectly happy to accept that I may not need them.

I know about all the other spices, using cinnamon over cassia because you can only get cassia in Taiwan in traditional medicine stores, and I haven't got the time to go to one. I hate kalonji so won't add it to anything I cook. And I always add asfoetida first, when I first heat the oil and cook the spices. Just doesn't taste right to me unless it's been steeped the longest in the sauce.

I try to keep my curries as authentic as I can - as in, if you eat one of my curries, then go to India and try it there at a few different restaurants, what I've cooked up should taste basically like what you can get there.

it came out really well. REALLY WELL. Sooooo good.

I used two fresh tomatoes, which is far less than I'd use in a regular old stock curry. Something about the tomato acid helped make up for the lack of pork (which I agree gives vindaloo a distinctive flavor).

No tomato paste necessary - it was just right!

Good!

Now go on Channa. Say stuff in Hinglish...

I like it when you do that.

everyone is liking my vindaloo, some people only are saying it is too too spicy.

Thank you haa. You are making Istanbullji a jolly fellow. I am sending hazaar kisses on your hote...