Indian was the first cuisine I really discovered for myself. When I was growing up, Mom cooked with lots of different flavors, but Indian wasn’t really part of her standard repertoire. She was great with classic American seasonings and was comfortable just about anywhere along the Mediterranean, but food from the countries beyond that inevitably suffered some serious modification–Pad Thai made with linguine rather than hard-to-fine rice noodles, curries made with vegetables you’d never find in Asia.
I went to college in a tiny town in northwestern Massachusetts that had about five restaurants, three of which were too expensive for my struggling student budget. That left me with two real options for eating out: a Thai restaurant and an Indian place. I’d had Thai before and loved it, but Indian was something of a new experience. Of course, I’d had a few scoops of Chicken Tikka Masala somewhere, but this place had stuff on the menu I couldn’t pronounce and had never heard of. The food was good, not great, but the flavors really grabbed hold of me–tumeric, cumin, curry powder, garam masala, coconut, cayenne. I loved the fire-breathing heat of vindaloos, the creamy flavor of paneer, and the soft, pillowy goodness of naan.
Once I graduated from college, I moved back to Connecticut where there were many more restaurants (and much better Indian places), but I wanted to try my hand at Indian cooking. The first meal I made was chicken korma and homemade naan. The chicken was a little dry and I burned my hand about twelve times while baking naan in a 500 degree oven, but the food was pretty good. After that, I set about mastering it. I’ve since perfected that trio of sauces you get at most places: tamarind, green sauce, and onion chutney. I’ve made naan more times than I can count and my samosas are pretty top-notch, too. My stews have gotten more and more adventurous, but this vindaloo remains my absolute favorite. It’s not hard to make, though it does need a good 90 minutes to simmer so that the meat is fall-apart tender and the sauce is rich and full flavored.
Vindaloo, which is a fiery dish seasoned with mustard seeds and vinegar, shows Portuguese influence on Indian cuisine. Instead of using the traditional method of crushing mustard seeds and vinegar with a mortar and pestle, though, I’ve adopted this ingenious tip from Madhur Jaffrey to use grainy French mustard, instead. For the average weeknight, store-bought naan will do, but if you’ve got some time on your heads I highly recommend making your own naan. It’s a bit of an effort, but the hot, buttery, tender goodness is beyond worth it. Click here to check out my favorite naan recipe.
- 6 tablespoons grainy mustard
- 4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 4 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 ½ teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 large sweet onion, cut into medium dice
- 12 to 15 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1 ½–inch cubes
- 2 cans (13.5 ounces each) coconut milk
- Chopped fresh cilantro, optional
- Mix mustard, spices, and vinegar; set aside.
- Heat a large, wide pot over medium-high heat. Coat lamb chunks with 2 tablespoons of the oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, sear lamb cubes until well browned, about 5 minutes per batch.
- Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the now hot, empty pan. Add onions and cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic; sauté until fragrant, about a minute. Add spice paste; sauté until fragrant, about a minute longer. Add coconut milk and enough water (about 1 cup) to just cover the lamb. Bring to a simmer; reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer until meat is very tender, about 1 ½ hours.
- Serve with rice or naan and garnish with cilantro.
I teach you, and then you teach me… as it should be! And I love this spicy lamb dish. If you use the food processor to mince the garlic, it’s about the easiest stew you could make.
This was really one of the best things I’ve eaten in a long time. I just wanted more, more, more! I will come back to this recipe, again and again.
Sharon – Please post more Indian recipes. I tend to alien with your Mom but have an adventurous palate and love Indian food. Find myself a pit intimated by the ingredients list and cooking methods.
Peace
This is very delicious! I like the perfect spicy favor. Spicy enough but not to the point that it will burn my tongue.
These spices sound great! We’ve been into goat stew meat lately. I would say the flavor is similar to lamb… super delicious. Anyway, I’m always looking for more recipes for it and this definitely fits the bill.
This is one of my favorite Indian dishes! I’m impressed you can make samosas.
Made this over the weekend, for a very discerning curry lover.. it was a GRAND SLAM. Can’t say thank you enough. it was delish!
Thanks for the feedback, Robyn. We love this dish too. Have also made it with boneless skinless chicken thighs with great success.
What is grainy mustard for this recipe? I found different suggestions for it. Some say mustard powder with hole mustard in it, others have recipe to prepare it. Would coarse black and yellow mustard products that are sold as ready mustard be OK?
You definitely want whole-grain mustard here, George. It’s prepared and in a jar in the mustard section of any decently stocked grocery store. This is the look of the mustard you’ll need to use. Good luck and be in touch if you have any further questions. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/12/dijon-mustard-recipe
Lovely, i love a lamb vindaloo. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
I’ve performed this recipe three times now, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I’ve tried many vindaloo recipes over the years and this is now my favorite one. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I recently graduated from culinary school, and work in an Assisted Living facility as a cook. This upcoming monday, I will be making Lamb Vindaloo for about 180 people. Your recipe gave me the confidence that I will be able to pull off a huge batch of delicious Indian cuisine! Cannot wait to make it!
Great article!
Your photo and its’ source have been featured on the World Food Guide website
http://worldfood.guide/photo/lamb_vindaloo_1068/
I used this recipe as a basis for the Vindaloo in my crockpot right now. I used balsamic vinegar because it is what I had and added lemon juice I like to put a cinamon stick in the slow cooker with my curries too.
In my travels I learned that vindaloo means with potato in some Indian dialects, and hot as f*@¥ in Portuguese.
Can hardly wait until it is ready!
Random question but is his recipe possible in a slow cooker? If so, what would you suggest? High for 4 hours or low for 6.
Not sure. I don’t cook in a slow cooker often.
I followed your recipe step by step. The curry came out straight yellow. And it’s not even thick. Lamb vindaloo is supposed to be thick and it supposed to be brown and it’s supposed to be sweet tasting. This is not even a lamb vindaloo.
Very good recipe, however there are parts in the instructions that need to be addressed, particularly step #3.
1. When does the meat go back in? I put it in after the paste, and stirred to coat the pieces completely.
2. Do you bring to boil before simmer?
3. Do you simmer covered or uncovered?
Most moderately experienced cooks will know what to do, and mine turned out great! Thanks for posting. 🙂
This dish lived up to it’s name. It was easy to cook and I really liked the flavor of the curry sauce. I also prefer my vindaloo on the hot side so I took your advice and added a bit more cayenne pepper. For some reason I ended up with more sauce than meat. To balance it out I added in two large potatoes (cubed about 3/4 inch) during the last 30 minutes. It turned out great. And my wife loved it too. Thank you for the great recipe. It’s a keeper.
I have gone to several great Indian restaurants over the last decade, but this is nothing like any of the vindaloo recipes I’ve tasted. We were way underwhelmed, and it barely had flavor, let alone kick. I added an extra teaspoon of cayenne, cause I make everything spicy, even scrambled eggs. I was really disappointed in this. For people that like spicy Indian cuisine, it’s a bust, sorry. I’m not trying to be mean, I have experimented with recipes for years, but have never published any because the only ones that turn out are one’s I have not ever written down.