Vegetable Vindaloo

Last night we sampled the Vegetable Vindaloo. It was a bit of exotic. We've been making curries for years with potatoes, ever since I figured out how to make a satisfying curry sauce out of tomato paste, coconut milk, and seasonings. Knowing our love for tomatoes, I opted to mix tomato sauce into the rice.

Since I was making a half recipe of the Vindaloo, I mixed up the whole amount of spices and put half of them into the tomato sauce. Ultimately this kind of dish is made by its spices. And this was a savory balance of spices: salt, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, cardamom (the recipe called for cardamom pods but I used ground cardamom), pepper & a cinnamon stick.

I served it with teacups of milk. Mind you, our chili powder is spicier than average. In fact, we purchased it at an Indian food store, and it was labeled there as "Extra Hot Chili Powder".

This recipe, from Simply in Season, was some-kind-of-sensational. It was simpler than my typical process, so much so that I allowed myself too much time for the project. But the vegetables were crisper than our typical fare. Our potatoes usually end up mashed, but in this recipe they held their form and crisped around the edges.

All in all this was a flavorsome variant on a household favorite, sure to warm up any night.

Favorite Song (on my favorite radio station during prep time): Seth Lakeman-Lady of the Sea