From the author: "Vindaloo is a recipe that best represents Kerala's diverse culinary influences, and it also reflects many of my own. My first encounter with tongue-searing pork vindaloo served in many Indian restaurants in the US was a bit jarring. I remember thinking how vastly different it was from the pork vindaloo I grew up eating in Kerala.
Like many dishes traveling across the seas amid many interpretations, I feel vindaloo got lost in translation. Vindaloo was originally inspired by a Portuguese dish, carne de vinha d'alhos (meat with wine and garlic), with the wine substituted with palm wine vinegar. This dish was introduced to Kerala and Goa by Portuguese who stored chunks of meat in wine barrels on the ship; the wine would turn to vinegar and thus preserve the meat for long journeys. When they got to shore, the sailors would add local spices to the meat and cook a stew.
This dish has many nuances: your palate experiences the tang from the vinegar, sweetness from the sugar, heat generated more from garlic than chiles, and a touch of bitterness from ground mustard seeds. Here, sugar, hot paprika, and a generous amount of garlic transport the pork roast to a faraway land. Choose a nice fatty pork shoulder, or Boston butt, to ensure lusciousness. I particularly enjoy the flavor of the rich sauce once it seeps down into the Cardamom Cornbread. Serving it this way brings to the plate a little something extra; my Louisiana friends refer to this as lagniappe."