Chicken Vindaloo

Chicken Vindaloo with link to recipe on Epicurean web site

It was highly ambitious - you might say naive or even stupid - of me as a relatively new cook to even attempt to make this dish with it's dozen or so freshly ground spices.  Note: If you're going to cook Indian and Pakistani recipes, make sure you've got an electric spice grinder. I foolishly pushed on with this recipe with only a Japanese-style mortar and pestle, and it took over 4 hours.

In any case, it turned out great, and Mark was really surprised! He considered it an early Valentine's day dinner. Now I know when most people think of Valentine's day dinners, they don't necessarily think of Indian food, but I think Mark was impressed by the well-balanced variety of full flavors in this dish, not to mention the effort that went into it.

See for yourself...Here's the link for this particular Chicken Vindaloo recipe on Epicurean. This dish goes perfectly with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt and Fu-Ki, a Japanese plum wine.

--The Daily Fitchett