Recipe provided by | Zestful Kitchen

Prep Time: 10 minutes + hour rest time Cook Time: 2 Hours Total Time: 3-1/4 hours

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless American lamb shoulder roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

• Salt

• 10 whole black peppercorns

• 5 chiles de árbol, stemmed, seeded and torn in half*

• 4 green cardamom pods 

• 4 whole cloves

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, or 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar

• 1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and thinly slice

• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or molasses)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds**

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 1 large yellow onion, chopped

• 8 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

• 1 small red or green Thai chile or red jalapeño, stemmed and thinly sliced

• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

• 1 red bell pepper, diced (optional)

• Cooked rice, bulgar, or barley for serving

DIRECTIONS

Toss lamb with 2 teaspoons salt; set aside. 

Toast peppercorns, dried chiles, cardamom, cloves, and cumin seeds in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer spices to a blender with vinegar, ginger, tamarind paste, and turmeric; blend, scraping down sides as needed, until smooth.

Add spice purée to lamb and toss to coat; cover and refrigerate for 4 hours (or set aside at room temperature for 1 hour).

Heat oven to 325ºF with rack set in lower-middle position.

Heat oil in now empty Dutch oven over medium-high; cook mustard seeds and cinnamon until seeds pop, 1–2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, garlic, chiles, and sugar; cook until onion has softened and starts to brown, about 8 minutes. 

Stir in lamb and it’s marinade, 1 cup water (or white wine) and bring to a boil. Cover pot, transfer to oven and cook for 1 ½ hours until lamb is tender.

Using wooden spoon or rubber spatula, scrape any browned bits from sides of pot and stir into sauce; stir in bell pepper, if using, and let stand, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Skim and discard grease from surface of sauce. Season vindaloo with salt to taste and serve.

* leave the seeds in half of the chiles for added heat. If you like a lot of spice, keep the seeds in all of the chiles, if you like it mild, remove the seeds in all of the chiles. 

**if you do not have black mustard seeds, go ahead and use yellow. If you don’t have yellow either, feel free to leave them out altogether. 

To de-fat the vindaloo even more: make the lamb a day ahead of time, store it in an airtight container and scoop the chilled layer of fat off the top. 

Nutrition Facts: Calories: 322 Sugar: 5g Sodium: 1222mg Fat: 23g Saturated Fat: 8g Carbohydrates: 8g Fiber: 2g Protein: 20g  Cholesterol: 77mg