2 pounds boneless chicken breast, cubed
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
5 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, halved and sliced
1 tablespoon ginger puree
10 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup crushed tomatoes
water

1. Grind together cumin, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, mustard and fenugreek in a spice grinder.
2. Combine ground spices with vinegar, salt, cayenne pepper and brown sugar.
3. Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat and fry onions, stirring frequently, until they are completely brown.
4. Remove onions with a slotted spoon and put in a food processor. Add enough water to form a smooth paste. Combine this with the spice mixture.
5. Combine garlic and ginger to form a paste. Add to remaining hot oil that you cooked the onions in, along with coriander and turmeric.
6. Brown the chicken in the oil, then add the spice paste and tomato sauce.
7. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook until chicken is tender, about an hour.
8. Serve over rice.

Makes 4 servings

Tonight I made the ever-popular Chicken Vindaloo. I have had this at several places, none particularly authentic Indian, and did not find it particularly spicy. However, everything I've ever read about vindaloo is that it is the spicy curry. Needless to say I was expecting a very, very hot dish. When it wasn't scorching my tongue after the first few bites, I thought maybe it was a cumulative heat that would kill me later on. Maybe I was a little scared of adding too much heat because of all the warnings, because it never really burned me at all. I feel burned by the lack of burn, to be honest.

Shannon thought that this dish was very good or, in her words, "I like it. It's better than the other curries." Since she is the one that introduced me to curry in the first place, I imagine that makes it quite good. I thought the whole process of making the vindaloo paste was quite time consuming and although I listed all of the ingredients here, I'd really just recommend buying a commercially prepared vindaloo paste if it's available. More and more I'm finding myself attracted to curry pastes, having yet to actually buy one, simply because there are so many tiny amounts of ingredients in these recipes that it's just not worthwhile to try and make such small portions.