My first experience with tamarind was in Guatemala. While living there, I fell in love with the refreshing drink made with tamarind. Since tamarind pulp is quite acidic, it works similarly to lemons to make lemonade. Once I returned to the US in the 1980s, tamarind was not available in most places and my interest fell by the wayside.
The tamarind is native to Africa, around what is now Sudan. It grows abundantly in India and the name tamarind comes from the Indian words Tamar Hindi, which means Indian date. The tamarind was introduced to Mexico and the Caribbean around the 16th century. The tamarind tree can grow to a height of around 80 feet in its preferred climate. The tree appears feathery, with small leaflets on each side of the stems. These brochures are closed at night. The fruit grows as brown pods. The outer covering of the pods is dry and brittle and breaks easily. The inner fruit is dark reddish brown, thick, fibrous and sticky. The fruit encloses 1 to 12 shiny brown seeds. It is sour and tart when young, sweetening as the pods ripen.
Tamarind came to prominence once again when interest in world cuisines and fusion cooking picked up in the late 1990s. This time, the focus was on the pulp used in recipes, rather than solely as drink. An incredible flavor, tamarind is sweet and bitter at the same time. It’s a potent flavor, best used sparingly unless you’re quite used to it. It is a wonderful addition to any sweet and sour dish. It is an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce. In Southeast Asian cooking, it is a flavor that is often combined with other ingredients such as garlic, dried shrimp, coconut, and chili peppers. Pad Thai is a commonly known Thai dish that uses tamarind. In India, it is used to prepare a delicious chutney, as well as tamarind rice or South Indian fish curry. In the Caribbean islands it is often used to cook seafood. Small amounts of tamarind paste are used in sauces for dishes containing cassava, chickpeas, potatoes, or rice with vegetables. It can be used to make sweet and sour sauces, mix into sugar and pepper recipes, mix into barbecue sauces, prepare drinks, desserts and candies.
A common use of tamarind is in sauces, allowing you to control the amount used. Simple tamarind sauce or paste is available in many places these days, even online. Adding from a teaspoon to many tablespoons of this prepared sauce simplifies the preparation of any recipe. It can flavor a marinade for meats. Chicken, beef, pork, and lamb are all candidates for a tamarind-flavored marinade. The natural acidity can be used in a marinade to tenderize tougher cuts of meat. It can be used in vegetarian dishes, adding wonderful sweet and sour flavors to a vegetable stew. The paste can be cooked into a jam. If making a Caribbean-style barbecue sauce with tamarind, some suggested ingredients would be chili peppers, mango, onion, garlic, and a bit of hot mustard. Sugar can be added to taste. These flavors seem to call for roast chicken.
I plan to try Caribbean or African style recipes. Some tamarind sauce with sweet potatoes and brown sugar would be a great combination. Mixed into a stew with greens, chickpeas, and sweet potato it is another great application. Find some tamarind, either in pods, compressed into a cake, or strained into a sauce. Experiment with the flavor. Turn it into a refreshing drink with sugar, to taste. This gives the first indication of the tamarind flavor. Then try this new flavor in other recipes. It is so versatile that it lends itself to sweet or savory recipes, and sometimes both together. Put tamarind on your list of new flavors to try if you haven’t already.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article. I hope it was informative and helped you on your own culinary journey.