By Kavitha Shankar, VRG Volunteer

Tamarind is a tropical fruit that grows on a tree in bean like pods. In South India, we do not use pre-made tamarind sauce (more often referred to as Chutney). The common dips (sambhar) and soups (rasam) are those we make by simply soaking tamarind in plain tap water and then extracting the tamarind juice from it. There are recipes that use the same tamarind sauce base and add fish as an ingredient in lieu of vegetables (we call this kara meen kolambu). This one is a non-vegetarian dish and it will be evident that fish is added to it (Example cuisines that use a lot of fish is Chettinadu type cooking – down south in India). In north India, we use tamarind chutney as a sauce/condiment. This usually contains pulped tamarind, chili powder, dried dates (optional), and sugar. In other words, no authentic Indian restaurant adds fish sauce to tamarind chutney. If it is fusion such as Indian Chinese they may add fish sauce, but it is fairly uncommon. We add monosodium glutamate in such fusion recipes to get the Asian aroma. The tamarind chutney will not contain dairy – it does not sit well with tamarind in our recipes.

Here is a sample recipe for Sambhar – a South Indian recipe using a tamarind base: https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/andhra-sambar-recipe-how-to-make-south-indian-sambar/

North Indian Tamarind Chutney: https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/tamarind-chutney/

Finally, be aware that that in Thailand, Vietnam, and China they may use fish sauce in their tamarind sauce.

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