Tamarind Chutney Recipe

Tamarind chutney is one of the exotic sour and sweet chutneys. Tamarind chutney in Hindi is called Imli ki chutney that is served as ketchup in the east. If you love sour and sweet taste, you should try tamarind chutney at home. There are many types of chutneys like onion chutney, mint chutney and tamarind chutney. It is served with many dishes like dosa, rice or Idli. The word tamarind is taken from Anglo-Indian language. In Anglo-Indian age, the word chutney was used for the material that was preserved in form of pickle.

In olden times, all types of chutneys were prepared with stone mortar and pestle. The paste of chutneys along with all the spices was fried in vegetable oil. However, in recent times, they are made with food processors.

History
Chutneys were introduced in European countries in 17th century. They were sent to France and England through ships. Then in 19th century, they are sent with different brand names. They were prepared with vinegar, fruit and sugar. The tradition of chutneys became very strong gradually in whole Britain. People started to make chutneys from pork, fish and ham.

Ingredients
The preparation of chutney especially tamarind chutney is very easy. It can be made quickly within few minutes. It is very cheap with few numbers of ingredients that you can find easily in your kitchen.

• Tamarind (half lb, seeded)
• Red chili (one teaspoon, powdered)
• Sugar (two and a half cups)
• Ginger (powdered, half teaspoon)
• Salt (one tablespoon)
• Black salt (one teaspoon)
• Boiling water (two cups)
• Black pepper (ground, one teaspoon)
• Cumin seeds (toasted, ground, one and half tablespoons)

How to prepare tamarind chutney

1. Take half lb of tamarind piece, wash and soak it. Fill a bowl with water and dunk tamarind in it over night. However, if you want to use it immediately, you can boil water and soak these pieces in it. Let it dunk for one hour in hot water.
   
   
2. You should take out entire crux or juice from these pieces. So, for this purpose, wash your hands first then squeeze the seeds along with their pulp. Separate tamarind seeds and trash them. Pass the remaining liquid from strainer so that you could separate the pulp from other impurities. Along with pulp, there would be roots and hard broken pieces of seeds so straining will separate the pulp from them. If you let roots and hard pieces go with pulp, you cannot enjoy it and will feel some irritation while having it.
   
   
3. Add two and a half cups of sugar in tamarind mixture and stir well.
   
   
4. Put this mixture on flame and let it cook meanwhile add also other mentioned ingredients. Check the ratio of salt and pepper, if needed add more in it to balance the taste.
   
   
5. Let the entire ingredients cook for five to ten minutes. Cool it and then preserve it in refrigerator. You can store chutney for long time like three to four months.