Rick Stein – Chica Andaluza

After the Christmas period I find myself once more craving warm and spicy foods. You can’t keep a curry fan down, and I turned to my Rick Stein book, India, for inspiration. The author explains that the word Vindail refers to the fact that it contains vinegar, although I expect it dates back further to the Portuguese “vin d’alho “ which is the origin of the word Vindaloo and refers to the wine (which was then substituted for vinegar in Goan cuisine) and garlic used to make the dish.

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The ingredients for the sauce are meant to serve 4 although I made the dish for 2 people. I played around with the quantities but have given details of the original recipe in brackets. The sauce is not too hot, but of course you can add extra chilli if you like, with a pleasing tang of vinegar which is tempered with the addition of a small amount of sugar.

INGREDIENTS (to serve 2 or 4)

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2cm piece of cinnamon stick
3 cloves (1 clove)
1 star anise
1 medium onion, chopped (2 medium onions)
5 cloves of chopped garlic (10 cloves)
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (or use your usual hot chilli powder)
½ teaspoon ground fenugreek (toasted ground fenugreek)
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
200g chopped tinned tomatoes plus 1 medium fresh tomato, chopped (500g tomatoes roughly sliced)
2 pork fillets (1kg chicken thighs and drumsticks, on the bone, skinned)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and add the cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Fry gently for a minute until fragrant then add the onions. Fry until golden brown but not burnt (about 10-15 minutes). Add the garlic and cumin and fry for a couple of minutes. I added a drop of water as it started to stick. Now add the rest of the spices, fry for a few seconds then add the tomatoes. Once they have started to soften and break down (about 5 minutes) add the meat, stir and cover.

The pork cooked quite quickly, about 10 minutes, so I removed it from the pan and kept it warm then continued to cook the sauce for another 30 minutes. If you’re using chicken, leave it in the sauce to continue cooking. When the sauce has reduced and thickened and the meat is cooked (if using chicken), add the vinegar and sugar and if you’ve used pork fillets or steaks, add them back into the sauce. Cook for a further 5 minutes and you’re ready to serve.

img_20170123_205142_3611 — Chicken and prawn curries

If you prefer a more traditional chicken curry, take a look at one of my favourite recipes.

I love reading cookery books, mainly to inspire rather than follow slavishly. Except when it’s a style of cooking that’s new to me or a cake recipe which generally needs the proportions of ingredients to be reproduced in balance with each other to achieve a good rise.

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I’ve had time recently to catch up on some tv watching and have been enjoying a series from about 2009, Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. Coincidentally, I was also given a copy of the book which a pal passed on to me. Serendipity or what? I was particularly interested in the first two chapters, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are not countries I’ve ever visited, and apart from an amazing vegetarian Vietnamese meal many years ago eaten with some friends on a trip to Melbourne, I don’t know very much at all about the food.

I was surprised by the simplicity of some of the recipes, using few spices or flavourings, but all looking like they would really pack a punch in terms of flavour. My mum and I decided to cook together and after buying a huge cooked crab from the local fishmonger, we made this beautiful crab with tamarind sauce. When I make it again (and it won’t be long) I’ll use 2 or 3 large crab claws per person rather than whole crab as the type we get here was perhaps not the best suited to this dish. Much as I love eating with my hands and slurping, a lot of the meat in the body cavity was lost in the sauce during the brief cooking and the spindly legs were fun but don’t have a lot of meat. The flavour however was incredible and I’d imagine it would be great too made with large prawns or even scallops.

Ingredients (serves 2 generously)

1kg raw or cooked whole crab, broken up into pieces
Vegetable oil for shallow frying
1 tbsp tamarind concentrate
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped finely
1 hot red chilli, finely chopped (or to taste)
1 ½ teaspoons of jaggery (use soft brown sugar if you can’t get hold of it)
1 ½ teaspoons of fish sauce
Some crushed or ground white pepper
About three spring onions cut into 2.5cm lengths

If your crab is raw you’ll need to shallow or deep fry it for a minute or so until the flesh changes colour. Drain on kitchen towel.

IMG_20171002_141947 — We’re still picking the last few runner beans from our little garden

Mix the tamarind, rice wine and about 6 tablespoons of water together and set aside.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok or large pan. Add the chili and garlic and9 stir fry for about 30 seconds then add the crab, the tamarind mixture, the sugar, the fish sauce and the white pepper. Stir well, cover and simmer for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the spring onions, cover and cook gently for another minute then put it all onto a large serving platter (we served straight from the wok garnished with more spring onion) and get ready to get messy and enjoy!