What are Tamarinds?
While I was growing up my Father used to love cooking curry’s and we always had a strange smelling dark square of concentrated tamarind paste in the fridge. Every now and again I would scrape some off close my eyes and eat a spoon full of thick dark paste, it’s intense sweet and sour flavours rocketed around my mouth as I would squeeze my eyes and fall over. Once Dad saw this he realized it was time to show me how to use Tamarind paste. Although I was taught how to use the paste in curries I had no idea what tamarinds were or how it was made. So the other day I set out to learn about tamarinds and make my own tamarind paste (recipe here).
Tamarind Facts.
- Tamarinds are fleshy pods that grow on large evergreen trees – they can grow up to 80 feet high. Their Scientific name is Tamarindus indica.
- Tamarind is a Arabic word even though they originate from Africa.
- With a distinct sweet and sour flavour they are used in a lot of Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian and African dishes.
- Helps to lower your LDL cholesterol levels; The dietary fibers in the fruits pulp bind to bile salts which are produced from cholesterol and decrease their re-absorption in the colon.
- Contains calcium, copper, iron, selenium, zinc, potassium and magnesium.
- Tamarind are rich in thiamin, vitamin A, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin-C, folic acid- all essential vitamins for optimum health.
- The tartaric acid in tamarind gives at a sour taste but is also a very powerful antioxidant. (Anti-oxidant E-number is E334). Antioxidants help the body to protect itself from harmful free radicals.
Tasty Tamarind Recipes
– Tamarind Pears with Creamed Tapioca and Toffee Pear Lollipops – http://www.britishlarder.co.uk
– Puli Inji Ginger in Tamarind paste – http://www.jeyashriskitchen.com
– Tamarind glazed Chicken & Apricot Kabobs – http://chefpeterskitchen.blogspot.tw/
– Simple Tamarind Paste – http://somedayspoon.com
Thank you for posting this! I almost purchased tamarinds the other day as they intrigued me very much so, but I had no idea how to use them..I figured I could just search it but your post does the job just as well.
:)
Hey Bridget, go for it! We also made some very easy and delicious Tamarind paste the other day so we will be posting that recipe soon too.
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is tamarind also good for weightloss? thankyou for your reply Dawn