Tamarind

Tamarin

What it is

The name is Arabic — tamr hindi, date of India — though the tree is African; Arab traders met it in India and named it for where they found it, not where it came from. Its pods are the sour backbone of Worcestershire sauce, which is why a bottle of one and a block of the other can stand in for each other at a pinch.

In the kitchen

Soak the block in hot water, roughly one part pulp to two of water, for twenty minutes, then work it through a sieve — the fibre and stones must go. Add it late to a braise: boiled hard for an hour it turns flat and faintly bitter.

Goes with

Fish sauce Palm sugar Chili pepper Ginger Garlic Coconut milk Cumin

Same species

Tamarind paste

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us