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| Tamarind tree |
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| Tamarind flower |
The sour and fruity taste of tamarind merges well with the heat of chiles and gives many South Indian dishes their hot and sour character, and their dark colour. In India, tamarind is mostly combined with meat or legumes (lentils, chick peas or beans). The pulp is sold dry and must be soaked before usage. Only the water is then added to the food. Alternatively (and more comfortably), tamarind extract may be used with the same effect.
A well-known example of a Southern Indian dish employing tamarind is vindaloo (vindalu), a fiery pork stew from Goa. Goa has been a Portuguese colony until the 1960s, and consequently still now many of its inhabitants are Christian, and pork is popular. Basically, vindaloo is a spicy, tropical version of Portuguese porco vinho e alho (see garlic): Pork is marinated with a paste made from ground onions, garlic, ginger and a host of spices (chile, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, cumin, toasted black mustard seeds) for several hours and then, together with the marinade and tamarind water, stewed until tender. Often, vinegar is added to get a more acidic taste. Variants with poultry instead of pork are popular with Hindus and Muslims. Outside of India, the recipe is often bastardized by adding potatoes due to confusion with Hindi alu [आलू] “potato”. Another South Indian food employing tamarind is the vegetable rice dish bese bele from Karnataka (see coconut).
On Jawa, Indonesia's most populous island, tamarind is taken as basis for spicy
and sometimes sweet sauces used to marinade meat or soy bean cheese
(tahu) before frying. A typical mixture might contain tamarind
water besides soy sauce, garlic and possibly ginger and galangale; chiles, of course, are added up to taste.
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| Tamarind branch bearing fruits |
Jawanese food in unique in Indonesia for its sweet-sour compositions, but the sweet-sour taste is much less dominant than in some Chinese recipes. For the sour taste, tamarind is preferred to lemons, and as sweeteners palm sugar (see coconut) and the sweet soy sauce typical for Indonesia (kecap manis) are most popular. Other ingredients responsible for the particular character of Jawanese food are fermented shrimp paste (trassi) and peanuts, which are ground to a paste and added to many sauces. Frequently, sweetness is more pronounced than acidity.
Although only a small minority of Western consumers knows tamarind today, there is still one product containing tamarinds that has gained some importance in international cuisine: Worcester sauce, which may be called “Indian inspired” in the same way as curry powder. See cloves for details.
In peninsular Southeast Asia (Vietnam and Thailand), the pods are both used
ripe and unripe; in the fresh state, their tartness is less fruity and more
astringent. Fresh tamarind pods cannot be dried or otherwise preserved,
except by deep-freezing. Tamarind is often used for acidic soups, which
are very refreshing in the tropical climate of Vietnam and Cambodia. See
also rice paddy herb.
