Vindaloo Paste

It's barbecuing season--and still cold at our house in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. Maybe that's why I'm thinking about vindaloo paste today: a warming spice melange that's been badly interpreted in America. Vindaloo doesn't mean "the hottest thing you can imagine." Rather, it must be first and foremost a balanced blend.

Frankly, I love to slather it on meat or veggies for the grill, let them sit for a few hours in the fridge, and then grill them off, comforting and easy.

Unfortunately, so many bottled blends are nothing more than excuses for too much cayenne, little balance among the ingredients. So here's the blend from COOKING KNOW-HOW:

The ingredients include 6 quartered garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger, 1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground mace.

Put all the ingredients in a mini food processor and give it a whir. Or if you really want to go nuts, put it all in a mortar and grind it up with a pestle. In the end, you want a grainy paste.

Like we used the other night for goat vindaloo. No, not off the grill. But we used goat neck bones, a lovely treat from our friends at the North Hollow Farm in Vermont. Did you know that goat is the most consumed meat in the world? And it's coming to America. Fast. Major supermarket chains have signed contracts to bring it into the stores. Bill Niman is out of the pork business and into goat. Restaurants in the Bay Area report they cannot keep it on their menus.

Anyway, we first softened onions and dried hibiscus flowers in a little almond oil. (We'd found the dried flowers at Trader Joe's.) Then we added the meat and its spice coating which had been marinating overnight in the fridge. Also added about 3/4 cup broth, covered the pot when the liquid was at a low simmer, and let it go about 2 hours. Goat bliss. But this vindaloo paste would be equally welcome as a barbecue marinade, no other sauce required.