Thanks for the input. I make my Vindaloo spicy as for personal preference, which my BF tolerates. If I was making this for a group of people, I certainly would not go as hot.
I’ve made this once in the past and used potatoes, but I didn’t have any on hand-- how did that happen?
As a side note, I know traditional Vindaloo is done with pork as you mentioned (Portuguese influence?), but any time I have have seen/ordered it on a restaurant menu, it has always been chicken and maybe shrimp. Come to think of it, I do not recall ever seeing pork on the menu of the Indian restaurants I frequent. Why is that?
Because it’s a Goan Christian dish, and most restaurants are owned by (and the cooks are) Hindus or Muslims - most of the former and all of the latter don’t eat pork.
In India, vindaloo isn’t found at generic North Indian restaurants - usually only at the rare Goan restaurant, or club kitchens that have Christian staff and multi-religious members. Or you have to track down someone who makes it at home and sells it. And then, it’s only pork.
This is a favorite cuisine of my father’s: he loves nothing more than finding an excellent rendition of anything Goan (I’m the one kid who developed an anti-Goan palate perhaps as a result of his quest )
First friend invited in for dinner in well over a year. Similar vax elapse as ours, and from a pretty well defined and maintained bubble. Spur of the moment, and sourced mostly from pantry, fridge and yard.
With drinks, green grapes wrapped with strips of prosciutto.
Sorrel soup with giant scallop. This turned out to be a “Wowzer!” (I love it when guests moan!)
Last night I made an Asian zoodle soup. Homemade miso broth, zucchini and carrot zoodles, baby bok choy, Fresno chile, green onions, gochujang marinate shrimp and a 7 minute egg. Why didn’t I think to dip it in soy sauce. Great idea. Cabbage slaw with sugar snap peas, orange baby bell, and rice vinegar, oo, red chile paste dressing with a sprinkle of furikake.
I went with comfort food tonight: Baked Mac and Ham and Cheese from the long-ago Mueller’s elbow noodle box.
Cabot’s Seriously Sharp cheddar cheese is perfect for this, as is the honey ham steak I cut up to add to the elbows. Panko crumbs mixed with a bit of garlic powder, dried orange peel, and dried parsley (to replicate a McCormick’s blend I don’t think is made anymore) for the topping. The parsley was the veg. I couldn’t be bothered with anything else.
And wine to toast my brother, who would have been 66yo today. Miss you, bro.
Different dinners tonight for the kids and the adults.
Kids had GF Mac and cheese - pretty darn delicious but the breadcrumbs suffered under the overheated broiler - I blew most of the burnt top off and into the sink (and the kids didn’t seem to notice).
Roasted zucchini for them that reminded me of the delicious zucchini antipasto at an italian restaurant near me - just not soaked in olive oil
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I had some cut vegetables and aromatics leftover from yesterday’s Chinese meal, so I made rice noodles for the adults. Lots of cabbage, carrots, chives, scallions, and onions. I couldn’t find sesame paste or tahini, so I subbed cashew butter that was in plain sight. Plus the chilli part of the LGM chilli oil. Very nice.
Korean banchan-style spinach on the side.
Salmon en papillote with that delicious scallion-ginger condiment.
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I made GF donut holes (glazed) for dessert for the nephews. Made the dough over the weekend for a taste-off with aebleskivers. Surprisingly good, and it may be the first time I’ve glazed something properly
Top chef Wednesday means no cooking! Made a quicky veal liver, leek and mushroom fried noodle with the Japanese Otafuku Okonomiyaki sauce I used a while ago for the Okasa style cabbage pancakes. It’s quite sweet, a big spoonful of fish sauce was added.
Your meal kit photos are so informative, @shrinkrap. I have wondered what using a meal kit would be like and the photos communicate a lot. The good old “a picture is worth a thousand words” thing.
FWIW, relatives who sometimes use Hello Fresh and Dinnerly meal kits to feed their family of 4 say that the portion sizes of the Dinnerly kits are more generous. That’s no minor thing for them with teenagers at home.
This tasty recipe comes from my buddies @hppzz & his Mrs, the Ravenous Couple. You can use a few different meat & vegetable fillings - mine were ground pork, onions, carrots, taro root & wood ear mushrooms. The recipe warns that using rice paper wrappers instead of wheat is more difficult - they can stick together when frying, don’t brown as well and aren’t as nice looking, but it’s more traditional and I like the texture better, so that’s what I use. The first batch I cooked quicker and they didn’t brown. These I left in longer to get some color. I like the first batch better - crispier, less oily, super tasty.
(I’m the one kid who developed an anti-Goan palate perhaps as a result of his quest 
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