Tamarind

[aris]

I experienced a lovely taste this weekend in the form of a tamarind dipping sauce. Made from dried tamarind blocks rather than the liquid concentrate you sometimes see. It is quite sour on its own, so needs a good dose of sugar, but I can see myself experimenting with this lovely ingredient in a BBQ sauce or glaze real soon!

[UKEgger]

I was actually speaking to a girl in the office about this after seeing Rick Stein use it so much on his Indian cooking program.

I have used it in paste form which is nice but have asked her to et me some when she next tops up , she is also going to get me a recipe her mums uses which she said will be fantastic on chicken as it is sweet and sticky.

[aris]

You need to get the blocks, which are basically dried tamarind compressed into a block, similar to what you can get pitted dates in. You then mix it with a cup of hot water, and let it rehydrate for an hour, then you pass it through a sieve, get all the seeds and fibrous bits out. That's the tamarind paste. Needs lots of sugar, and other spices to make a sauce.

I found this recipe which looks quite good:

http://caribbeanpot.com/homemade-tamarind-bbq-sauce/

[gingerchris]

I got some in block form from Asda - was looking for the paste but couldn't find any, then subsequently found it in an Asian supermarket. Good to know there's something I can use it for!

[JamsCowbell]

I tried this recipe today, it makes quite a nice sauce

[JamsCowbell]

had a BBQ today and the most popular sauce was this tamarind one so it looks like I'll be making it again.

[aris]

I think tamarind is a winner ingredient.