A Classic Indian spicy thick curry made with lamb meat in vinegar and spices!
It tastes great with steamed rice. I heard this recipe as a Portuguese recipe and people started to change it and made it Indian. This gravy is colorful, flavorful and it’s perfect with ghee rice or roti. I always had this on my list to do for a long time. I have always seen “lamb/chicken vindaloo” in the Indian restaurants. So, it was pending for a long time. It is very famous here and I have seen my friends order this. So I wanted to post this recipe. The name looks complicated but super easy to prepare. Then prepared it, but took a long time to post it. I finally got some time to post this recipe. You can use the slow cooker for this recipe or use a pressure cooker or even cook in the pan for a long time. You can always cook this vindaloo recipe with chicken, prawn, potatoes or fish.
People tend to cook more chicken or beef as few people tend to get intimidated by it and think it involves a lot of hard work to cook lamb. It is really easy and quick to make lamb. For Indian recipes, you can pressure cook it for 4-5 whistles before adding them to the gravy. And if you are baking it, seal it and roast it in pan and bake according to the way you want the lamb to be cooked. For every 500g of meat, a rough guide to cooking your lamb in an oven is about 40 minutes for well done, Medium is about 30 minutes, Medium rarely is about 25 minutes and rare is about 20 minutes. Everyone has his or her own preference of cooking the lamb. I always feel lamb recipes are easy to make and taste great. You have to be careful with the oil you use as lamb itself oozes out oil from its fat.
Other favorite Lamb recipes: Spicy Honey Garlic rack Of lamb, Lamb spinach curry/Saag gosht, Kadai Ghost/Lamb curry, Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani, Restaurant style lamb biryani, Lamb pepper curry roast, Mutton Sukka/goat curry, lamb shami kabab, mutton biryani
- Lamb – 500 gms, cut into small pieces
- Dry red chillies – 10
- Vinegar – 2 tbsp
- Poppy seeds/khus khus – ½ tsp
- Black peppercorns – 8
- Cloves – 5
- Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
- Cardamom pods - 3
- Green chillies -4
- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
- Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
- Ginger – ¼ inch
- Garlic – 6
- Cinnamon – 1 inch
- Vegetable oil – 3.5 tbsp
- Onions – 2 medium, finely sliced
- Salt – to taste
- Coriander leaves – to Garnish
- Lemon lime – 1 tbsp juice
- Soak red chillies, turmeric powder, black peppercorns, poppy seeds, cloves, green chillies, cardamom pods, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, cinnamon in vinegar and 2 tbsp of oil for 30 minutes.
- Blend these soaked spices with vinegar and oil also into a fine paste.
- Take your lamb pieces into a bowl and add required amount of salt. Apply the blended paste to the lamb pieces and marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- I cooked the marinated lamb in a pressure cooker for 5 whistles but you can cook in a pan for 45 minutes or even slow cooker for 2-3 hours.
- Heat oil/ghee in a pressure cooker, add the onion slices, sauté them till golden brown in color. Add the marinated lamb in it. Sauté them for a minute. Then add 2.5 cups of water or add water till the lamb is almost covered. Let it go for 5 whistles. Switch off,wait for the pressure to release, open and mix well. If you find it the consistency to be watery, open it and cook for 5-7 minutes. I did open and boiled it for 5-7 minutes over medium heat.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and squeeze some lime on it.
Perfect with ghee rice/ plain rice and Mumbai-style egg bhurji.