Tamarind season

Now is the time for harvesting the tamarind fruit. Is tamarind a fruit? I mean people usually consider fruits as sweet in taste.
Tamarind is sour although there is a rare sweet variety too.

Where does tamarind grow?
The tamarind tree is huge and the one we have in our place has been there forever. It usually yields fruit once a year during the month of January but as it ages, we get only once in two years but the fruit collected and treated will last a long time.

The problem now is that the climate has become affected and perhaps that is why the fruits are not good as before. If we collect ten tamarind pods, only four of five are perfect enough.

How to treat tamarind pods?
The tamarind pods are left to dry in the sun for three to four days. Then it is broken with the hand. It is easy to break and the inside flesh is taken out and dried again in the sun. Then it is pried open with a knife to separate the seeds which are black in color.

The seeds are collected and kept aside. Decades back when there was no internet, children used to play with seeds. It was fun. Sometimes, the seeds are fried with salt and broken to get the inside part to be eaten. One should not eat too much though. I have never eaten it but some in my family have.

What is tamarind used for?

Tamarind is pounded along with rock salt in a mortar and stored in Chinese clay pots and sealed. When we make curries like Sambar, a small portion of this tamarind is taken out and immersed in hot water for some time and the water is squeezed out and used in the sambar to make it taste better. The waste is thrown away.

Nowadays, people do not want to go to all that trouble and so they buy ready-to-use tamarind paste from the store but during the times of money-minded businessmen with no ethics whatsoever, it is better to make your own tamarind balls and store it for a few years rather than use the paste that might have preservatives that are harmful.

So, what are the curries that make use of tamarind paste?

• Sambar - soup like curry
• Puli inchi - thick spiced pickle
• Puliyogare - tamarind rice
• Chutneys

So, have you had tamarind at any time in your life?
I have heard that there are tamarind toffees in the east of Asia. Be warned that it will be very sour to taste and might even disrupt your stomach if you are not used to the strong taste. So, eat with caution.

I think this is my first post on Hive Garden. I look forward to sharing many more posts on gardening on Hive. If you found this interesting, please feel free to share this post.

The tamarind tree is also home to many birds that sit on it and create wonderful natural music. It can also be used to support creeper plants such as the black pepper.

images owned by sayee