Vindaloo
November 11th, Veterans Day, is the anniversary of my parents’ first date. My father asked my mother out for a drink after work, and she accepted.
My father was a young Army officer, working to design tank parts as part of the World War II effort. He was assigned to the industrial city of Detroit. Instead of just making cars at the time, they were also constructing big war machinery. My mother worked for the army in the file room. At the time, the design engineers, like my father, were working to advance our warfare machinery. Everything was important and pretty hush-hush.
My mother was one of many, many women in charge of filing the design drawings. Imagine file cabinets as far as the eye can see. They had huge wide drawers that were very narrow top to bottom. The blueprints were on paper at the time and very large. They had to lay flat. Women carried the drawings rolled into huge cardboard tubes. Then they unrolled them and filed them in the massive drawers.
Everyone was putting in their best effort. It was a very busy, and nervous time.
Because all of the war machinery being worked on was a secret effort, they had rules they had to follow to keep the top secret stuff secret. And there were more rules to protect all those involved. My parents broke the rules...
Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com
Related Recipes at PlanZDiet.com:
Spicy Spinach Chicken Casserole Bowls
Italian Crock Pot Chicken
Vindaloo
This is a ZReduction recipe. This is probably the spiciest offering for Plan Z. This, and the Caribbean chicken chili. So if you like Indian food and you like it spicy, this is your ticket. If you like it flavorful but not all that spicy you always have the option to cut back on the jalapeno. I am going to lay out how to make this 3 ways. Chicken, Pork or Turkey-leftover.
Indian food is often not all that pretty to photograph. The satisfaction comes in the flavor. So don’t let that sway you away. It’s sort of like Irish stew. That doesn’t photograph well either. Vindaloo has a lot of flavoring ingredients but it’s super easy to make.
Servings: Serves 3 to 4. One serving is up to 1.5 cups or 8 ounces of meat max. One cup will be satisfying for most.
Ingredients:
Your choice of
1 package of chicken tenders, or
1 pork tenderloin, or
4 cups of leftover turkey bits
If you choose the chicken:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put the chicken tenders in an oven proof pan and bake it them at 375 for about 15 to 17 minutes until done. Done is no more pink the middle. Cut one open to be sure. Then cut them into bite-sized pieces.
If you choose the pork:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray the pork tenderloin with olive oil and put in an oven-proof pan. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until the pork reaches 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Let rest for a few minutes to cool down and cut into bite-sized pieces.
If you choose the turkey:
Pull your turkey apart after the festivities and cut into bite-sized pieces. They can be shreds or solid chunks. Your choice.
For the vindaloo
½ of a large onion, chopped (or a whole, medium one). About 1 – 2 cups. This does not have to be scientific. It’s just an estimate based on how much you like onion.
1 tsp of minced garlic (jar garlic will work)
1 fresh chili (I used jalapeno), minced. You can use half of the chili or go all the way up to HOT and use the whole thing
2 tsp of cumin
½ tsp of curry powder
½ tsp of turmeric
½ tsp of ground ginger (if you don’t have it you can use fresh or jar ginger too)
½ tsp of cinnamon
¼ tsp of dried mustard powder
A pinch of ground clove
½ tsp of Truvia
2 – 4 Tbl of tomato sauce (you can decide if you like your sauce more tomato-based or not)
½ – 1 cup of water. Start with ½ cup and as it cooks down you can decide if you want to add more.
1 Tbl of apple cider vinegar
Baby spinach (one handful per person)
Instructions:
Spray a medium sauce pan with olive oil spray. Add your onion and cook on medium, stirring often, until it wilts. Turn off heat. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the pan up through apple cider vinegar. You can add half of the jalapeno and then taste later and decide if you want to add more. The spinach is for later. Turn it back on to medium-low. Stir. Simmer 10 minutes to get the flavors to meld, stirring often. You want to get it bubbling but just for a moment and then turn it down. Add your meat and simmer on low for up to 20 minutes more to get the flavors to penetrate the meat. Keep an eye on it and see if you want to add more tomato sauce and/or water. This is totally based on how loose you want your sauce. Some people prefer it just coats the meat. Others like it saucy. Taste and make your final judgement on whether you want to add the rest of the jalapeno.
When it’s heated completely through, and the meat has had time to absorb some of the flavors, you can serve.
Traditionally, this would be served over rice. In our house, we serve it over baby spinach. The heat from the meat and sauce will wilt the spinach. You can just stir it around to make your “stew” with the spinach included.
This makes a great leftover dish the next day and travels to the office to heat in a microwave.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola
