Belgium meets India’s Portuguese flair (with British twist) in this third excerpt from Beer and Food ( Ryland Peters & Small, Dog & Bone imprint, Spring 2014) Mark Dredge of Pencil and Spoon …
Gueuze Chicken Vindaloo
In the United Kingdom, Vindaloo comes with a firehazard warning: Eat one of these curries and part of your body will burst into flames. Vindaloo’s reputation for being fearsomely spicy is a British development on a dish that has Portuguese roots. It was originally meat cooked with wine and garlic, which then evolved (when the Portuguese took it to India) into meat cooked with vinegar and the addition of chili and other spices. The beer evolution is to take out the vinegar and use Gueuze for the acidity instead (this also adds some peppery depth). I serve mine with Pale Ale and Garlic Naan bread on the side.
FOR THE MARINADE
1 tsp each cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, and cardamom pods
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp granulated sugar
A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
½ tsp ground cinnamon
6 garlic cloves
3 fresh green chili peppers
¼ cup (50ml) Gueuze
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE CURRY
4 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, chopped into large chunks
2–3 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion, finely sliced
3 plum tomatoes
2⁄3 cup (150ml) chicken stock
1⁄3 cup (100ml) Gueuze
A few cilantro (coriander) leaves, to serve
SERVES 4
1 Dry-fry the cumin, coriander, and mustard seeds, and the cardamom pods in a saucepan for a few minutes. If you are using ground versions of the spices, then just use ½ teaspoon of each and mix them straight into the marinade.
2 Add the dry-fried spices to a food-blender with all the other marinade ingredients and blitz into a paste—this might take a couple of minutes.
3 Cover the chicken with the marinade and leave in the refrigerator for 4–8 hours, reserving any excess marinade.
4 Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan and fry the chicken. When the chicken has colored, add the onion and tomatoes, and then fry for a couple of minutes until they soften.
5 Add the remainder of the marinade liquid, the stock, and about half of the beer. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Add the other half of the beer just before serving and decorate with a few cilantro (coriander) leaves.
6 Don’t drink this one with Gueuze—it may be cooked in it, but the beer doesn’t taste great with it. Instead, you want a Dark Lager or Witbier.
(*Recipe reproduced with permission from Beer and Food by Mark Dredge– Ryland Peters & Small, Dog & Bone imprint, Spring 2014- Food photography: William Lingwood)