Tamarind

[Varmint]

I went to the new huge Asian market yesterday and found myself buying things that I have no idea what to do with them. I mean, a block of tamarind? I just knew I had to have it, so help me out here.

I also bought some dried golden mushrooms and some powdered tapioca. I don't know what I'm going to do with those, either, but any guidance would be appreciated.

[tommy]

dude, first of all, make tamarind chutney for use in making bhel poori, or just as a dip. it's fantastic stuff. serve with cilantro/mint-based green chutney with some sort of chips, and you've got a snack that blows the pants off of any "chips and dip" that you might consider putting out for guests.

i've used it for several thai recipes, none of which are coming to my head this early in the morning.

Edited November 16, 2003 by tommy (log)

[Blondie]

Make Agua Fresca de Tamarindo. I make it from the tamarind pods, but this recipe calls for the block form. It's delicious and very refreshing. Maybe even try mixing some half and half with your iced tea.

[Busboy]

By all accounts, you have no need for advice on what to do with various pig bits. But as long as you have tamarind lying around the house, you might try my good friend Gray Kunz's tamarind barbecu glaze:

1 cup tamarind

2 plum tomatoes

2C. Water

1/2 c. roughly chopped fresh ginger

1/2 C. honey

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander seed

Salt to taste

throw it into a pot, simmer until the tamarind melts. Strain through a fine sieve and return to heat, stirring occasionally, until the whole things reduces to a syrup. Adjust seasonings and lacquer your favorite cut of meat with it.

[jwagnerdsm]

Tamarind Paste is a staple in Pad Thai. Lots of work but worth the effort. The National Dish of Thailand.

[BettyK]

Check out the eGCI on Thai Cooking. Mamster and Pim posted a recipe for Pad Thai there.

Edited November 16, 2003 by BettyK (log)

[mamster]

And tamarind is also used in the pim's massaman curry recipe, from the same course. I second the motion for agua fresca. You can drink it straight, or it's frankly delicious mixed with Sprite.

[BettyK]

About the powdered tapioca...I assume it's tapioca flour a.k.a cassava flour/starch. You could try the Pao de Quejo posted in eG Recipes. My mam uses tapioca flour as thickener for some dishes and cornstarch for others. I'll ask her next time I talk to her.

Never heard of golden mushrooms. You might want to post this on the China board too.

[helenjp]

The thing to do with the tamarind is...send it to me! Can't find where to buy it in Japan!

Tamarind is sour, but it also adds a slight depth and sweetness, so it's popular with bland vegies like zucchini/marrow, eggplant, cauliflower etc., and with meats that often need a little sweetness, like beef, and to add depth to spice mixes.

As long as you're grilling, you could try an Indonesian dish -- chicken cooked "rudjak" style. You would need fermented shrimp paste (blachan or trasi) as well as the tamarind, though...open out a chicken so that it can be grilled flat. Smear over it a paste made from a 1 onion, plus some chillies, some garlic, and a small chunk of fresh ginger (better yet, the spice known variously as laos, lengkuas, galangal, which is a more flowery-smelling root similar to ginger), and half to 1 teaspoon of trasi (fermented shrimp paste, wrapped in foil and quickly waved through a flame before adding to the mixture) all of which have been pounded or put through a blender.

Let the chicken stand as long as convenient, then prepare a panful of coconut milk (canned) with lemon grass and a little tamarind water (Take a piece the size of a peanut and mix with a little water, press through a tea strainer, discarding the solid remains). Dump the chicken in and cook slowly, basting with the cooking liquid until reduced. When mostly cooked, put the chicken on a barbeque (not too hot, burns easily) and keep spooning the cooking liquid over the chicken as it barbeques.

This is an old recipe from Rosemary Brissenden, with a good flavor and the advantage that it does not take long to BBQ and also great in hot summer weather, as you don't have the worry of keeping the raw chicken safely cool.

A chunk of blachan trasi will last you fully as long as your block of tamarind (heh heh), both are used in small amounts. There is a softer Chinese fermented shrimp paste which may be easier to obtain, but it does not have as complex a flavor as the SE Asian product.

Golden mushrooms..don't know them by that name, but soak them and try them in a Chinese style stir-fry with shreds of meat (optional) and crisp veges...then at the last minute add beanthred vermicelli (soak 20 minutes before using and cut into short lengths) to soak up the mushroom-flavored cooking liquor and provide a nice softness with the chewy mushroom and slightly crunchy veg.

Tapioca/cassava flour...I've only seen recipes for grated fresh cassava in desserts...it's used in SE Asia and across the Pacific, and I think in southern India too.

[MatthewB]

Tamarind = the sour in Hot & Sour Soup!

Get to work.

[Shiewie]

Golden mushrooms - are they long, skinny and bunched in little clumps? If they are, they are probably what's commonly known as golden needle mushrooms ('kum chum gu" in Cantonese) or enoki mushrooms. I haven't seen them dried though - I usually get them fresh or tinned. Like helenjp said, use them in stir fries and also in soups.

Tapioca starch is used much like cornstarch, as a thickener.

Here's a simple recipe for pan-fried Assam Prawns/Shrimp or Fish ... and you don't need to make another trip to Asian market for more special ingredients. (Tamarind is known as assam in Malay).

It's a dish that's normally served with nasi lemak (coconut rice) (but it's fine with plain rice too or on it's own):

Ingredients

1 lb medium shrimp / white fish cutlets

1 heaped tbsp tamarind pulp

1/4 cup warm water

salt to taste

1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

oil to pan-fry

Instructions

1) If using shrimp, remove whiskers and remove shell around the body but leave the head and tail on (so that it looks pretty but you can remove it all if you're not keen on crunching on shrimp heads ). Slit along the back of the shrimps and remove the black bits (intestinal tract).

2) Dissolve tamarind in warm water and strain. Discard the seeds.

3) Marinade shrimp / fish cutlets with the tamarind juice, salt and sugar for around an hour.

4) Rinse the shrimp / fish quickly and pat dry with a paper towel (the rinsing is done to stop the shrimp / fish from darkening too quickly - I'm usually too lazy to do this so it alwasy looks kinda black).

5) Pan fry till they're golden brown.

[maukitten]

An easy tamarind sauce to jazz up fried eggs sunny-side up. To go with say, 4 eggs. Being rather experimental in my cooking, I'm not very scientific in my recipes - sorry!

4-5 shallots - sliced

1 red fresh chillie - cut into 1/2 inch lengths

tamarind juice from about 1 inch cube of tamarind from your block (ie. soak the tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup hot water for a couple of minutes, and squeeze the juice out of the tamarind pulp)

sugar and salt to taste

1-2 tbs cooking oil

Heat the oil in a wok or shallow pan, and fry the shallots till transparent. Toss in the chillie pieces and stir around for a couple of seconds. Pour in the tamarind juice (be careful of splatter!), and turn the flame to low. Let the tamarind juice simmer for a while (about 2 mins) till the chillies and shallots look wilted. Add sugar and salt to taste - aim for a nice combo of sour, salty, slightly sweet and slightly spicy. Pour sauce over eggs and serve with white rice.

This is probably a Nyonya recipe (Nyonya = straits chinese in parts of Malaysia like Penang, Malacca, as well as in Singapore). You can also substitute the eggs for fried fish, or fried pork belly slices, or even salt fish if feeling adventurous!

[maukitten]

Tapioca flour is a staple in oyster omelette (or "oh-chien" as we call it in Malaysia). The result is a slightly starchy omelette, but it's really fragrant, and delicious. My dad's recipe goes like this (again, not very scientific...) :

3 large eggs - beaten, and with 1/4 cup water added in to thin it out slightly

2 tbs spring onions - chopped finely - add to the egg mixture

6-10 fresh oysters

2 tbs tapioca flour mixed with 1/2 cup water

2 tbs garlic - chopped finely

2 tbs shallots - chopped finely

1 tbs red fresh chillie - chopped finely (optional)

3 tbs cooking oil

chillie sauce - as a dip (use the Asian chillie sauces eg Thai)

3 tbs cilantro - chopped

Traditionally, this is cooked in a cast iron skillet, but a non-stick pan works fine. So here goes :

Heat the oil, and fry the garlic, shallots and chillies together until fragrant (be careful not to burn the garlic). Drizzle the tapioca flour mixture into the pan (remember to stir it before pouring it in) - this should set almost immediately. Immediately pour in the egg mixture - the aim is to get a combination of the tapioca flour bits sort of interlaced with the egg in a thin, slightly crispy omelette. Place the oysters on the egg mixture. When the omelette is golden brown, turn it over and cook till golden brown on the other side. It's OK to break the omelette up into manageable pieces. Sprinkle the cilantro on top and serve with chillie sauce.

The oyster omelette tastes best when it's actually fried - so you may have to add more cooking oil along the way, or start with more than 3tbs oil.

[maukitten]

Tapioca flour is also used in a variety of desserts in South East Asia. Eg. "Tab Tim Grob" - the Thai "red rubies" are water chestnut bits coated in tapioca flour. Will go home and look up some Malaysian desserts for you. Probably some brightly coloured, v sweet concoction with coconut milk to boot. Health warning required probably ...

[helenjp]

Wow, all these recipes!!! Brings back lots of memories of working in a Chinese grocery when I was a student -- lots of our customers were homesick Malaysian or Singaporean students -- haven't had that kind of food much in Japan, but I'm indoctrinating the kids every time we fly through Singapore.

I got so excited I saved all the recipes into my translation file by mistake...oops.

Talking of garish desserts, some Singapore people just might know that the English version of Sony's e-mail PostPet software is Singapore based -- and you can download tiny graphics of Singaporean sweets to feed your virtual e-mail-delivery pet. As a consequence, my kids got off the plane longing not for noodles or tropical fruit, but for pandanus-flavored cakes!

...getting a bit off topic here...

[Sweet Willie]

I mean, a block of tamarind? I just knew I had to have it, so help me out here.

too funny, I have a block as well, with no ideas until now.

[Suzanne F]

When I worked for Gary Robins, he used a Tamarind Sauce with monkfish (I think). Also a sweet one as part of a Mango Sundae. I'll put both into the Recipe Archives.

(And Maukitten, I hope you'll enter yours there as well. Pretty please???)

[tommy]

i'm making grilled shrimp with a tamarind sauce tonite, as i uncovered a block myself. i'll report back if it's good.

it was good.

bathed the shrimp in salt water for a while.

made a paste of garlic, red onion (had no shallot), salt, sugar, cilantro.

added the paste to reconstituted tamarind (about 2 T with 1/2-3/4 cup water).

heated the sauce to reduce and added a bit of fish sauce towards the end.

served with mixed greens (basil, cilantro, watercress) dressed w/ s/p lime juice.

to me, this is one of those "who could not like this" dishes.

Edited November 22, 2003 by tommy (log)

[torakris]

The thing to do with the tamarind is...send it to me! Can't find where to buy it in Japan!

Helen,

just one word (that you have heard before!)

TOMIZAWA

look here:

http://shop.tomizawa.co.jp/category/data_d...01&ID=4082&pg=2