How To Make Tamarind Chutney
Tamarind chutney is a popular Indian sweet and sour sauce. You can serve it with appetizers like samosas, make chaat with it or serve with Dahi Bhallas. We always make a large quantity and freeze it so it is readily available at all times.
For a detailed recipe, click:
http://www.showmethecurry.com/2007/06/28/tamarind-chutney-imli-chutney/
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Step 1:
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Hi welcome to show me the curry.com, I'm Hitel and I'm Anuja and today we are going to make tamarind chutney.
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Step 2:
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Here's what you are going to need: 2 cups water 2 table spoons of concentrated tamarind paste, it can be bought at any Indian store. 1/2 cup jaggery. 1 teaspoon salt. 1 teaspoon red chilly powder. 1 teaspoon garam masala. 1 teaspoon roasted and ground cumin and fennel seeds.
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Step 3:
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OK first, we have actually heated up the water in the microwave for about 3 minutes and we are going to dilute the tamarind paste in there, just so that there is no lumps. It dilutes a lot better in warm water than it does in the cold.
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Step 4:
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Alright lets go ahead and put it on the flame. Medium to medium high. There you go and the jaggery please. Now if you don't have jaggery, you can, you know use sugar, that is absolutely fine. Because jaggery has a very natural taste and it's just very nice. And we're going to go ahead and mix it. It'll reduce to like about half a cup and then we'll go ahead and add the masalas. It's important to cook tamarind because it has a very pungent flavor and by cooking it you remove a lot of that strong odor and flavor.
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Step 5:
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The rawness of it goes away and we are going to let it boil but in between we are going to keep stirring it just to make sure it doesn't catch at the bottom. OK so now that it has come to a boil, I'm going to reduce the flame, to a simmer just so that it doesn't boil over and stir it and then just let it boil some more to let the amount reduce.OK lets give it another stir and actually at this point we can go ahead and add the masalas so they also cook along with the tamarind.
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Step 6:
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This is the powdered cumin and fennel seeds. This is garam masala, red chilly powder. And salt. You continue boiling, it has to reduce quite a bit more and you are looking for a thicker consistency. That's not even sticking to our spatula. It needs to lightly coat the spatula. So let it boil again.
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Step 7:
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OK looks like our chutney is thickening up nicely, give it a stir. See how nicely it is coating the spatula. Go ahead and turn it off. Jaggery actually also helps in you know making the chutney a little sticky, that's one of the nice parts about this chutney. Also it will thicken up a lot more as it cools. And there we have it tamarind chutney.
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Step 8:
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I just wanted to mention one more thing, once it cools down this is actually a cooled product and once it cools down it becomes a lot thicker than when it's on the flame. so this is the consistency we actually are looking for. Look at this. Awesome. And it has an excellent shelf life. It goes well with chat and samosas and pakodas a whole lot of different things. Well join us again on another episode of show me the curry.com Anuja- Adding a pinch of spice to your life