What you can do with leftover wine

What happens when you have a bottle of red wine, a kilo of mutton, a book exploring royal Indian cuisine and an urge to make something off the beaten track for the family’s Sunday lunch? A Wine-daloo!

There was a chapter tracing the evolution of vindaloo in Indian kitchens, in Lizzie Cunnigham’s book Curry, which made me want to recreate the dish. With very little time to go out and get some chicken or duck, I settled for mutton and decided to marinate it in a bottle of red wine, crushed garlic and rosemary.

After this, I got down to the business of roasting spices. At this point, my grandmother, who was out to investigate why alcohol was being used in the kitchen, decided to teach me a valuable lesson about the roasting. “Chillies take a long time, while jeera, haldi and khuskhus burn easily,” she told me, putting her trusted half-a-century-old kadhai on the stove. As the chillies turned a deeper red, we tossed in cloves, black peppercorns, poppy, cumin and lastly turmeric powder. At this point the collective aroma of the wine mix and the toasted spices was making me feel rather confident, but the next morning, as we did the tadka for the curry and let the wine-soaked meat sizzle, I wasn’t too sure if the thing was going to work. ‘That’s too much wine!’ I thought. But there was no plan-B and so, I threw in some pureed tomatoes to balance out the wine — a move many vindaloo loyalists might frown at. With some nervousness, the ‘Wine’-daloo was served alongside fresh Irani Pao.

The collective “Wow!” at the table was enough to convince me that my modifications to Ms Cunnigham’s recipe must be recorded!

Wine-daloo
Ingredients
Wine-marinade:
A bottle of red wine
5-6 cloves garlic
1/2 tbsp rosemary

Spice-marinade:
2-3 big dried chillies
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp poppy seeds
6-8 cloves
10-15 peppercorns
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 fresh red chillies
1tbsp red wine vinegar
1tbsp tamarind paste
10 large cloves garlic
3/4 inches fresh ginger

Curry:
4-6 tbsp vegetable oil
1tsp mustard seeds
3/4 inch cinnamon
1 big onion chopped
4-5 tomatoes, pureed
1 cup water
Salt
Pinch of jaggery
Curry leaves   

Method: Soak mutton in wine, garlic and rosemary for 3-4 hours. Dry roast the dried chilies, clove, pepper, poppy, cumin and turmeric (in that order). Grind to fine powder. Grind remaining ingredients (red chillies, tamarind, ginger, garlic and vinegar) to a paste. Mix the dry masala with this paste.

After five hours, drain the wine (leaving very little in) into a jar. Refrigerate this mix. Rub the paste into the meat, and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, remove the meat from the fridge. Place it in the pressure cooker with half the wine mix (drained from the meat) and a cup of water and cook for about 25-30 minutes.

In a large pan heat the oil and add in the mustard seeds. Once they start popping (beware they can sting your arm!), throw in the cinnamon and onion. Continue to saute until the onion browns. Now add the tomato and allow the sauce to come to a boil. Mix in the cooked mutton and add the rest of the wine concoction. Once this comes to a boil, thrown in the jaggery and curry leaves, mix well and take it off the stove.

Serve after about half an hour, giving meat and the curry enough time to steep together.

This tastes best with Irani pao and a siesta after lunch is absolutely necessary!