Tamarinds ..the magical fruit

One of the bonuses of blogging is learning about new cultures and ingredients used in different cuisines. Another bonus is making new friends across the globe. Jenn of Leftover Queen suggested we make a "little exchange" when we read each others posts. Jenn is the one person I have known the longest in the blogosphere. There are many things that drew me to her blog besides her fabulous Mediterranean and other delicious recipes. She has an entrepenurial spirit that exudes a passion for food and what she does. She is the founder of the Foodie Blogroll and the Royal Foodie Joust.

Jenn made a delicious chicken dish with tamarind paste...but what is a tamarind...says I ? She loved the sound of the horehound flavoured birch syrup in my post. So we had a "little exchange"! "I made her an offer she couldn't refuse"...from the Godfather in case it's not familar.

My parcel arrived yesterday with some lovely treats inside. First there were the actual tamarind pods with their sweet & sour "sticky stuff". I can see how these would be very addictive and who would have thought they grow tamarind in Florida as shade trees? Jenn says, "To eat them, crack open the pod, pull off the stringy things and eat the sticky stuff". They are so unfamiliar to me I needed instruction, so thank you for that Jenn!



Secondly she sent along some Tamarind-Chili candies from Thailand. They are spicy sweet as Jenn suggested and super addictive too!

Plus... as an added bonus Jenn sent along some of her favourite coffee beans from her friend Lisabeeen who hand roasts all her own beans. She can be contacted here at Lisabeeen . I will grind them up and enjoy a nice "cuppa". See, I met a "new to me" blogger once again!!

I have become the unofficial expert on Tamarind (when I GOOGLED the information in anticipation of my package from Jenn)

The fruit from the tamarind tree is a brown pod-like legume which contains a soft acidic pulp and many hard-coated seeds. The fruit was well known to the ancient Egyptians and to the Greeks in the 4th Century B.C. In all tropical and near-tropical areas, including South Florida, it is grown as a shade and fruit tree. It grows along roadsides and in parks. They plant it commercialy in Mexico, Belize and other Central American countries including northern Brazil. In India as well there are extensive tamarind orchards producing 275,500 tons annually. It reminds me of our locust trees that have similar pods and grow along the roadsides with the loveliest fragrant flowers.

Have you heard of tamarind? It does have alternative names in different countries and languages for the "Indian date".

- in Malaysia it is called asam. - in Indonesia it is called asem (or asam) Jawa (means Javanese asam) in Indonesian.
in the Philippines it is called sampaloc and sambag.- in India it is tentuli, imli, chinch, tẽtul, siyambal, chintapandu, puli, hunase, voamadilo.- the Vietnamese term is me.- in Puerto Rico it is called tamarindo.
- in Taiwan it is called loan-tz

I have been eating tamarinds for breakfast this morning. Jenn suggested that I make a milkshake with the tamarind using frozen vanilla yogurt. I will take her up on that!!
More of my useless (well not exactly useless) facts on the tamarind:
1) To cure lack of appetite, nausea, morning sickness, and digestive disease in children, use 15-30 grams of tamarind flesh. Heat it with sugar until it is blended.

2) To cure pocks, mix tamarind flesh with red ocher and apply on the pocks.

3) To cure diarrhea and vomiting, stir fry tamarind seeds until they are burnt and crack the shells open. Use 20-30 seeds, soak them in salted water until soft and eat.

4) Few plants will survive beneath a tamarind tree and there is a superstition that it is harmful to sleep or to tie a horse beneath one, probably because of the corrosive effect that fallen leaves have on fabrics in damp weather.

5) Some African tribes venerate the tamarind tree as sacred. To certain Burmese, the tree represents the dwelling-place of the rain god and some hold the belief that the tree raises the temperature in its immediate vicinity.

6) In Nyasaland, tamarind bark soaked with corn is given to domestic fowl in the belief that, if they stray or are stolen, it will cause them to return home. In Malaya, a little tamarind and coconut milk is placed in the mouth of an infant at birth, and the bark and fruit are given to elephants to make them wise.

If ever you have the chance to try a tamarind...by all means do!! It is delicious in a paste form or in a milkshake!!!

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