Vegetable Vindaloo
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
For the spice paste
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds or ground coriander
- 2 cardamom pods
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek
- 5 cloves
- 1 inch cassia bark or cinnamon
- 10 black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
- 3 dried small red chillies (the hot ones), chopped roughly (add 5 if you want it really hot or add 1 if you can't take the heat), I used fresh
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped roughly
For the curry
- Oil for frying
- 2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 cups water from a recently boiled kettle
- 50g/1.7ozs tomato paste
- 700g/24.7ozs. potatoes, washed and cut into small bite sized pieces
- 500g/1.1lbs. large sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
- 500g/1.1lbs. Japanese eggplant, trimmed and cut diagonally
- 500g/1.1lbs green beans, topped and tailed and halved if long
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Step 1 - Measure the cumin, coriander, cardamom, fenugreek, cloves, cassia, peppercorns, mustard seeds, turmeric and sugar. Place in a dry frypan and heat to release the aroma and cook for a minute or two. Grind this up in a mortar and pestle with the vinegar, tamarind paste, chillies and garlic until fine.
Step 2 - Heat oil in a frypan and saute the onions until fragrant and translucent. Add the spice paste and fry for a minute. Then add the tomato paste, 1 cup of water and potato. Simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes. Then add in another cup of water and the sweet potato and simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on. Repeat with 1 cup water and 10 minutes for the eggplant and then lastly do the same for the green beans. Season with salt and pepper and serve with basmati rice.