Tamarind Paste Recipe | Home Made Without Any Additives

       Tamarind paste- one of the widely used ingredient in southern India. It is used as well in many other cuisines.Tree grows in a tropical climate where there is abundant of sun and less rainfall.

What i remember ?My story :
      When i hear about tamarind, i just remember my home town where we had a tamarind tree.Each house has to take care of  one tree.During summer holiday this is the fun activity we kids will do.
        She is the one who gives us the year around supply of tamarind for cooking.We kids used to shake the fruit from tree and got to collect in large baskets.Then break the shells and keep in another container .Then our mom and grand ma used to separate the seeds and sun dry it to store it further.After some days, grand ma makes it in to tight balls of them and store it inside a square wooden container specially designed to keep the tamarind fresh year around.
Identify fresh and old ones :
        When the fruit is black, it means its old and will be used in the recipe which doesn't  call for color .The recipe won't be appealing if the color is black rather than the original color ,right ? Where as the fresh fruit will be sticky and brown in color.

Saving and playing while having fun:
        My granny used to weight the seeds we separated from the fruit(its kind of difficult work.I usually get less money than others poor me )  and give money for us depends on our labour. With the remaining seeds we playing pallankuli .This is a game which increases your math skills and kind of improves your mental strength/thinking as well .Over all its a nice pass time during the summer holidays.This is my story what about yours ? If you have any special stories you can share it in comment section .
Why i prepared this paste ?
     Mom used to give me year supply.After finishing up with my moms supply i go for store bought tamarind.Store bought ones are very hard to separate and it take minimum 30 minutes to extract the juice.In case if  i forget to soak them in a hurry, then it a big chios.That's why i thought to prepare my own paste and keep it.When ever needed i can use 1/2 to 1 spoon depends on the recipe .This is also best for people who works and want to finish up their cooking work in a jiffy ..Its not a big task to prepare the paste but sure is helpful for the beginners and working moms.
Enough of stories lets talk about its uniqueness..
          Tamarind  makes the recipe extra delicious by offering a tangy taste to it.That's why its widely used in chettinad cuisine like summa kulambu,puli kulambhu ,rasam,sambar and so on...
     
Step by step picture recipe for making tamarind paste:

• Boil 1 cup of water .Separate the tamarind in to pieces.Soak it in hot water for 1/2 hour.Add more water and take juice out of it by filtering through colander.

• Add juice to a heavy bottom pan.Cook in high fire for 15  minutes until most of the water evaporates.

• Keep in low fire until all of the water evaporates.

                                                                  Tamarind Paste Recipe

                     Home made tamarind paste without preservatives  

 Cuisine: Indian   Category:Basic Prep time:30 minutesCook time:1 hour Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes Yields:1/2 cup thick paste

Ingredients:

• 100 grams tamarind
• 2 1/2 cups water .

Method:

• Boil 1 cup of water .
• Separate the tamarind in to small pieces.
• Soak it in hot water for 1/2 hour.
• Add more water and take juice out of it by filtering through colander.
• Add juice to a heavy bottom pan.
• Cook in high fire for 15  minutes until most of the water evaporates.
• Keep in low fire until all of the water evaporated.
• Home made thick tamarind paste is ready .Use it in your sambar,rasam,kulambhu or you can prepare this for your children instead of giving the whole tamarind.

Note:

• Store in an airtight container and use fresh spoon every time.
• Edited 12/16 about the storage instructions :You can store at refrigerator at least for 1 month.