Date and Tamarind Chutneys

Tamarind is not only used in Asian cuisine but you will be interested to know that its also used in the famous Worcestershire sauce. Tamarind, apart from making our recipes tangy and delicious, also have many medicinal properties. It lowers cholesterol, protects from Vitamin C deficiency and is a good source of antioxidants.

Tamarind gives a sweet and sour twist to the chutneys. Today I am not just going to share the recipe of sweet tamarind chutney but also of mint-tamarind chutney.

Be it pakoras, samosas or chaat, you cannot truly enjoy these savory snacks without these chutneys.

You can make them and store for a month or two in the freezer. I usually make it in bulk and freeze it. Lets start with the sweet tamarind chutney.

The recipe is quiet simple, you need tamarind pulp with/ without seeds, jaggery, fresh ripe dates, red chilli, cumin seeds, salt and water. 

I get the seeded tamarind pulp, put it to boil in a sauce pain with 1cup of water for 10 minutes. This way all the pulp easily withdraws from the seeds. Filter the pulp, till you just have seeds left in the strainer. If you have seedless tamarind pulp, still its better to filter.

Now that you have the tamarind water which will be very sour. So in the same saucepan, add tamarind 1 cup of water, red chilli, cumin seeds, jaggery shreded and about 15 seedless dates. Some recipes use date paste but with the paste you get a thin consistency of chutney. With whole fresh dates, you get the perfect not so thin not so thick consistency. So that when you dip your samosa into the chutney, the chutney should stick to it not just run off from one side.

Boil all the ingredients with half cup of water for about 15 minutes or more till all the date flesh and jaggery has dissolved and you have reached the chutney consistency more like ketchup you can say. Taste it, if you like it a lil bit more sweeter, you can add more dates and jaggery. You can blend the entire mixture to make a smooth paste. But I like the little date and tamarind pulps in chutney.  It should be tangy and sweet.

Thats it, let it cool. Store in a jar. Keep in the fridge, use within three days. If you want to store it for long, keep it in the freezer. Freezing the chutney will not change the taste, if you find it thick after melting, you can add a tsp of water.

Now for our mint-tamarind chutney, I have already shared the recipe of green chutney on my blog. Green chutney plus sweet tamarind chutney is our mint-tamarind chutney. Mix 1/3 of green chutney with 2/3 of sweet tamarind chutney.

Wow your guests on bbq parties, hi-tea with three different chutneys, each one of them having its own charismatic taste.