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flavor Tamarind hot sauces??? any recipes out there?

Jeff H

Jeff H

I made a not hot at all tamarind sauce for a recipe I was making a couple of weeks ago and it was really good. A little strong on the cumin (did I actually type too much cumin? that should be a crime.) but overall very good and I liked the tamarind tart flavor. Today I found the leftover sauce in the fridge and decided to spice it up so I mixed it 2 parts tamarind to 1 part "The Ghost" sauce and used it as a dipping sauce for some taquitos. Great flavor still but now it was very hot, but the bitter of the tamarind lasts longer than the burn. Good combination.

This experiment has peaked my curiosity on a tamarind based hot sauce. Has anyone done this before? There is very few sauces that use tamarind, but there are some notable exceptions like Worcestershire.


Here is the recipe I used for the tamarind sauce. When I make it again, I'll cut the cumin a bit but overall I liked it. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tangy-tamarind-sauce-10000000665511/
 
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I bought some tamarind paste a little bit ago and have been trying to figure out what to do with it. I have only ever seen one tamarind hot sauce in a store, and it was only so-so. I will be watching this thread to see what you come up with, and if I do, I will post it here.
 
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I just remembered: there's khajur imli ki, tamarind chutney sauce that's served with samosas and chaat. It normally contains a little pepper powder for flavor, but I'm guessing fresh fruity/citrus or smokey peppers would go great in it.
 
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Tamarind frozen margaritas are good but you have to mix the pulp with brown sugar first, or it will just be sour.

Same with the hot sauce. Brown sugar, garlic, onion, ginger, lemon, NO cumin as far as I'm concerned. Pineapple juice, maybe. And clove can work.
 
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I tried out a couple Tamarind hot sauce recipes a few months back. One thing I learned is that a little tamarind goes a long way. I got Tamarind at the asian foods store, in the form of a block of sticky tamarind mush with seeds etc still in.

The first "sauce"I made, I used about 1/4-1/3 of a cup of Tamarind to a 12 oz finished sauce, with habs etc. That one came out so thick and sticky that its almost impossible to get out of the bottle - and it tastes basically like very hot tamarind. It works well as a tamarind paste substitute in recipes that want tamarind, but its not a good sauce.

The next one came out much better since I learned my lesson. I only added about 1 -2 T of tamarind to a 12 oz sauce and the flavor was very pronounced but not quite as overwhelming. It still thickened up the sauce a bit. I didn't write down the recipe, but as I recall it was just a basic one (habanero + lime juice + acv + salt + brown sugar + tamarind). I think like THP said, by adding ginger, garlic, onion, and maybe some fruit you could probably come up with a very complex and delicious sauce but I have yet to try anything groundbreaking.
 
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I use tamarind as a secret ingredient in most of my barbecue sauces. You won't find it listed in may recipes, but often people throw a nice big heaping spoonful into the mix towards the end of the cooking.
 
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Flamecycle, we must have picked up the same thing and now one of the seeds is about 4 feet tall and growing a nice tree in a friends back yard. they'll grow but you have to soak the darn things a week before planting.
 
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Kalitarios said:
I use tamarind as a secret ingredient in most of my barbecue sauces. You won't find it listed in may recipes, but often people throw a nice big heaping spoonful into the mix towards the end of the cooking.
Click to expand...

And it's in worcestershire sauce, so anything you add worcestershire sauce to, you are adding a tamarind sauce to.

Lea & Perrins
Distilled White Vinegar, Molasses, Water, Sugar, Onions, Anchovies, Salt, Garlic, Cloves, Tamarind Extract, Natural Flavorings, Chili Pepper Extract.
 
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RocketMan said:
Flamecycle, we must have picked up the same thing and now one of the seeds is about 4 feet tall and growing a nice tree in a friends back yard. they'll grow but you have to soak the darn things a week before planting.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I didnt even think to try - maybe I will give it a go. Looks like they can get pretty big.
 
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I was at an Indian restaurant a couple weeks back and they had a tamarind sauce at the buffet. The owner saw me consuming it like a bowl of soup and stopped by to visit. He said the paste is bitter but you can get the blocks at any international food store. He soaks it overnight (or 24 hrs) in water and then strains out the pulp and seeds. He then blends w/ a lot of sugar and some raisins and strains it until smooth. It was wonderful. If you add enough sugar, the paste is probably perfectly fine.

I've been thinking of making a hot sauce w/ tamarind for a while now. I think it would work very well w/ cayennes, chipotle or BBQ sauce. Here is a Tamarind Chipotle hot sauce but I don't know if it's any good: http://peppers.com/cube/Hot-Sauces/Global-Warming-Tamarind-Chipotle-Hot-Sauce-Rocklands-Three-Bottle-Pack/prod_4554.html. Any ingredient list from a hot sauce w/ [background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]worcestershire, like Tiger Sauce, would give you an idea of what it would go good with.[/background]
 
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You can buy tamarind paste? I usually just buy the pods remove shell and boil until it's mush. I Never got a bitter flavor from it just super tart. I use it to make a sweet tamarind drink.. A lot of Mexican candy uses tamarind.
 
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Try rehydrating dryed Chipotles along with raisins and the tamarind...plus your other ingredients , Using a food mill removes all the fiber/seeds but leaves you with all the flavor.

Tamarind along with the smoke from the pods creates a unique sauce (steak)
 
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Tecolote said:
You can buy tamarind paste? I usually just buy the pods remove shell and boil until it's mush. I Never got a bitter flavor from it just super tart. I use it to make a sweet tamarind drink.. A lot of Mexican candy uses tamarind.
Click to expand...

I went into an Indian store and found tamarind in a jar, pasted and ready to go. Also, there were block pages of it in a non-paste form
 
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I am wanting to try making a tamarind sauce with enough acid to keep it from going bad.

Per google, tamarind pH is 1.8 to 3.7. So it should be acidic to start with, and safe to substitute for a portion of the peppers in a hot sauce recipe?

Will a sweetener, such as sugar, agave, or honey, be an issue with the sauce pH?
 
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