Karen Martin’s family recipe uses oxtail, a much-loved offal, in their rendition of the vindaloo. The oxtail vindaloo takes me back to my childhood. I remember my grandmother checking the tenderness of the oxtail and the aromas of frying spices wafting from the kitchen. Growing up, I would crave vindaloo curry for its spicy, sweet and tangy flavours. The vindaloo as a dish has an interesting history. Portuguese sailors brought the dish to India, and it was later adapted by the British in the 18th century. The word vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese word ‘vinha de alos’ (vinha meaning wine/ wine vinegar and alos meaning garlic). The dish today is shared by the Christian Goan community and the Anglo Indian community. The base of the vindaloo is wine or vinegar but today, most Anglo Indian homes use a combination of vinegar, sugar, chillies, garlic and country tomatoes for tanginess. Vindaloo is usually made with meat — beef, oxtail, pork or mutton, while some households also use seer fish, crab or prawn. Oxtail is an …