In my earlier days when I was studying yoga in Mysore, there was an Indian lady who opened up her house for Westerners serving breakfast and dinner.  She would make the most delicious Pongal drizzled with a sweet-sourish tamarind gojju.  Only recently, after making it for so many years, I finally obtained an authentic recipe for the tamarind gojju in India on our last retreat.  The secret lies in obtaining fresh curry leaves and using a seedless tamarind pulp.

~ Fallen leaves

~ The caress of Autumn

~ Favourite spaces

tamarind chutney

The colour and taste will vary depending on the type of tamarind used.  I use a partially dried, seedless tamarind pulp (on the right in the photo below) or when this isn’t available I use a moist seedless tamarind pulp which comes compacted in a package (to the left). 

The chilli, commonly used in South Indian cooking, is Byaadagi chilli and is known for its deep red colour; it is relatively sweet and less spicy.  If unsure about the level of the spice of the chilli you are using, leave whole or cut in half. Both the Byaadagi chilli and the seedless tamarind pulp can be purchased at your local Indian store.

The sauce will keep in the fridge for about a month. I recommend doubling the recipe and freezing in smaller batches to use as needed.

ingredients 

150g seedless tamarind pulp

3¼ cups boiling water

for the voggarane

2 Tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

2 Byaadagi chillies, sliced in half

⅛ tsp asafoetida powder

10 fresh curry leaves

150g jaggery, or dark brown sugar

¼ tsp turmeric powder

⅓ cup unsweetened dried coconut

½ cup water

½ tsp fine rock salt

to serve 

pongal

preparation 

1.  Break the tamarind pulp into pieces and place in a bowl.  Pour 1¼ cups boiling water over the top and set aside for 30 minutes, mashing and turning the tamarind regularly to soften and break it up.

2.  Pour through a strainer, drain, use ½ cup boiling water to rinse out the bowl and pour over the tamarind pulp.

3.  Using the back of a spoon, scrape against the bottom of the strainer to get as much of the thick tamarind liquid out as possible. Do this for 5 minutes and then pour over another ½ cup boiling water – keep doing this scraping and pouring to get as much of the thick tamarind liquid out as possible until the water is used up. This process is fiddly and normally takes me about 15 minutes until I am satisfied with the amount of tamarind extracted.

4.  When you have extracted enough thick tamarind juice, either compost the remaining pulp or place in a jar to use later in cooking.  Don’t worry, the tamarind sauce will be quite liquid, the jaggery will thicken it while it simmers. Set the tamarind sauce aside.

prepare the voggarane

5.  Over medium heat in a medium saucepan, heat the oil, add mustard seeds; when the seeds turn grey and pop, turn down the heat, add the fenugreek, chilli, asafoetida and curry leaves – fry for a few seconds.

6.  Pour in the tamarind sauce, bring to a rapid boil, turn down the heat, and add jaggery/sugar. Allow to rapidly simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until it becomes slightly thicker and starts to come away from the edges around the saucepan.

7.  In a high-speed blender, add ½ cup warm water and coconut – blend for 1 minute.

8.  Pour into the tamarind sauce, using a spatula to get as much out of the blender as possible.  Allow the tamarind to simmer for a few minutes, then add turmeric and salt. The tamarind sauce will thicken as it cools.

My preferred way of serving this is drizzled over this pongal dish, or as a dipping sauce with these samosas.