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British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Main Dishes => British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Main Dishes => Vindaloo => Topic started by: Edwin Catflap on April 28, 2013, 07:15 PM

Title: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: Edwin Catflap on April 28, 2013, 07:15 PM
Guys

What is your preferred in a vindaloo, vinegar (what sort) or lime or lemon juice. I know traditionally it should be wine from the Portuguese but what is the mostly used BIR choice?

Ed
Title: Re: Vinegar, lime, or lemon
Post by: fried on April 28, 2013, 07:26 PM
I'm still not really sure in Bir terms what exactly a vindaloo and for that matter what a Madras really consists of. I use fresh lemon in a Madras but if I were to use the same in my vindaloo it would only differ in the amount of chilli powder used. I can't see lime being used in Birs for cost reasons. I've used vinegar and had good results but if I'm just making one dish I just use my Madras recipe and up the chilli content.

I know it's been debated before but I've eaten so many variations of the two over the years that it's hard to have a real idea of what is used in Birs.
Title: Re: Vinegar, lime, or lemon
Post by: curryhell on April 28, 2013, 07:48 PM
Just to confuse things a little, one of the kitchens i visited years ago to watch my phall being cooked, added some PLJ instead of lemon juice or dressing.  For those that aren't familiar with this, its a lemon based cordial  :o :o
Title: Re: Vindaloo, vinegar, lime, or lemon
Post by: Stephen Lindsay on April 28, 2013, 07:50 PM
It seems to me a Vindaloo is indeed just a Madras with more chilli powder, and the addition of some cubes of cooked potato. I tend to use lemon juice but will revert to vinegar if I run out.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: artistpaul on April 28, 2013, 11:14 PM
I use the vinegar from a jar of pickled silver onions or gherkins to great effect
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: chewytikka on April 29, 2013, 12:06 AM
Vindaloo. :P
No Lemon, Black Pepper, ground Birdseye Chilli and ASDA Cider Vinegar, does it for me.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: goncalo on April 29, 2013, 05:14 PM
It's interesting that you bring up this question, as I discussed it elsewhere recently.

I've made 2 vindaloos recently using C2G's recipe and I ordered a vindaloo from restaurant where I can sense the use of vinegar, although mild enough that it's strong flavour notes are not highly noticeable. My take is that any acid that you would use to tenderize meat is likely to do a great work. I'm sure this is one of those areas where it's pointless discussing which is correct, mainly because a number of chefs will do it differently, CH's example is quite evident of it. I have bought a bottle of vinegar and I intend to try it in my next vindaloo/phal, if I feel the smell/taste of vinegar too strong, I'll probably not look paste the lime/lemon for this dish again.

Some other alternatives might be: pure citric acid, jif (watered down lemon juice/citric acid), tamarind sauce.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: fried on April 29, 2013, 05:23 PM
I cooked traditional style vindaloo a long while ago and still remember the vinegar being over-powering. It could have just been the recipe I was using, but it's another thing I want to revisit one of these days.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: goncalo on April 29, 2013, 05:25 PM
I cooked traditional style vindaloo a long while ago and still remember the vinegar being over-powering. It could have just been the recipe I was using, but it's another thing I want to revisit one of these days.

Traditional vindaloo should be cooked with wine, not vinegar. Could this be your issue, or did you write vinegar when you meant wine?
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: fried on April 29, 2013, 05:38 PM
I did say traditional 'style' and the recipe I followed comes from one of the most authentic bibles of Indian cuisine, namely 'The best of Sainsbury's oriental cooking', so there is a good chance that it may not be 100% authentic!

I know that the recipe originates from a Portugese dish using wine but I'm sure that many traditional recipes now use vinegar or maybe wine vinegar. I know a couple I was thinking of trying from Vahchef use vinegar, this maybe for religious reasons I don't know. I'll certainly being doing further research.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: goncalo on April 29, 2013, 06:10 PM
You had me at
and the recipe I followed comes from one of the most authentic bibles of Indian cuisine, namely 'The best of Sainsbury's oriental cooking'

fair enough Fried.
Title: Re: Vindaloo - vinegar, lime, or lemon?
Post by: markh3565 on May 06, 2013, 08:29 AM
I've tried lemon lime vinegar and found tamarind sauce to give the best result - closest I've got to a restaurant vindaloo - use 2 tsp of sauce and add it after the first ladle of base gravy - not got on very well with all that soaking of a block of tamarind then found it in a bottle in big T`s.
Appreciate the context of the thread was 're a traditional style recipe but this really works well for me