All ‘Bout Tamarind

Tamarind Balls

This is prob­a­bly the most pop­u­lar method of con­sum­ing tamarind, espe­cially among chil­dren. Tamarind balls are made with shelled tamarinds, and white and brown sugar. Oth­ers choose to add spices, for addi­tional fla­vor or for a spicy taste, while flour is another optional ingre­di­ent. In Bar­ba­dos, they are sold both as sweet and sour and sweet and spicy. The Tamarind balls recipe is a very sim­ple one, as it merely involves mix­ing every­thing together,
rolling the mix­ture into indi­vid­ual balls, and rolling the ball into either white or brown sugar.

Tamarind Paste

To make this, you sim­ply need water and sugar in addi­tion to the tamarinds. The water is used to boil the tamarinds. The length of time you boil is depen­dent on how much acid you desire to remain the paste. Alter­na­tively, instead of boil­ing, the tamarinds can soak in a lit­tle bit of water for a few hours or a day or two. Add sugar to the pulp formed after boil­ing or soak­ing and serve either at room tem­per­a­ture or cold.

Tamarind Syrup
This fol­lows the same recipe as the paste, how­ever, the objec­tive is get­ting the liq­uid only. There­fore, more water should be added in order to ensure you can get a fair amount of liq­uid and as the tamarind pulp beings to form, sep­a­rate the solid from the liq­uid. This will give you a deli­cious syrup that can be added to water to make Tamarind Juice, or served over crushed ice as a Snow Cone.

This has become a pop­u­lar ingre­di­ent for rotis, as it add a sweet and spicy fla­vor to them. Tamarind Chut­ney is sold locally in stores, but can also be made quite sim­ply at home in your kitchen. All you need is tamarinds (of course), onions, pep­per, salt, sugar, gar­lic, lime juice and water, with other optional ingre­di­ents such as scal­lions and cilantro. Ide­ally, you begin by mak­ing the tamarind paste (boil the shelled tamarinds in about 2 cups of water for 15 to 20 min­utes). Then, remove the seeds from the tamarinds, so that only the solid a seed­less pulp remains. Add your chopped onions, gar­lic and the other ingre­di­ents to the pulp on the stove and cook for 20 addi­tional min­utes. Finally, purée this mix­ture in a blender so that it becomes a smooth sauce. Taste, and add more salt, sugar or pep­per depend­ing on your preference.

In addi­tion to these amaz­ing uses and recipes, Tamarind can also be used as a fla­vor­ing for var­i­ous foods such as chicken, fish, sal­ads and pota­toes to name a few. As such, you can essen­tially have a lunch/​dinner, with drink and desert that is all ‘bout Tamarind.

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