Monday, January 24, 2011

Beef Vindaloo

They only look like wasted weekends in front of the television.
It's called research.
I knew I liked Aarti from the start.
She was a contestant on 
The Next Food Network Star.
She has a smile and personality that just draws you in.
From what I understand she started out as a blogger, maybe?
Good news, I'm not so big a stalker that I researched her.
But this is not my point.

From the get go her food intrigued me.
I was lucky enough to catch one of her shows this past weekend.
She was making Beef Vindaloo, 
Cucumber Raita and a flat bread thing.
The good thing about watching someone cook as opposed to just reading a recipe is that what looks intimidating on the page is a piece of cake when demonstrated.
Really, "toasting" the spices and then grinding them?
Yeah, no big whup.
I knew saving that old coffee grinder was a good call.

I'll link the recipe here.

For whatever reason they are not posting her Cucumber Raita independently. It's 
linked with a lamb dish. But it's basically:
2 Cups plain yogurt
2 cups grated English cucumber
1 clove garlic, minced
4 sprigs mint leaves, finely minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons golden raisins
Mix that all together and you're good to go.
The raisins are a very fun sweet punch.

She did a great job on keeping the heat down 
so if you like a kick, go ahead and up the cayenne.
I did everything pretty much as written.
 I had to work a couple of hours this afternoon so I threw the completed 
vindaloo in the crock pot for about three hours. 
I think that dried out the beef a tad, so I wouldn't do that again. 
I didn't make the flat bread, it looked just too labor 
intensive for a Monday dinner so I bought a package of 
Naan bread. Pitas would probably work very well too. 
You just tear off a piece of bread and use it to scoop up a bit of meat
and a bit of the raita. Indra told me once that when eating Indian food, 
no two bites should be the same and 
each bite should be a perfect bite. 

Kind of a fun way to eat! 




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