Tamarind Juice / Pulp is one Basic Ingredient Used In Different Dishes in Indian cuisine. The process of extracting the pulp / juice from tamarind is an easy process.
Different forms of Tamarind
Tamarind is sold as single small block or as a ready to use paste in most of the Asian / Indian grocery stores. In Indian cooking its widely used in sambar , kuzhambu’s , curries , gravies , rasam soup and the list goes on. The sour and tangy nature of the tamarind enhances the taste of overall dish.
Recipes Using Tamarind are posted here Ennai Kathirikai Kuzhambu Check it out.
Tips
*Tamarind paste which is sold in the Asian market are ready to use and is a simple way to use them in your recipes.
* Prepared Tamarind juice / pulp can be stored in the refrigerator for a week.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Take the small lemon sized portion of the tamarind from the tamarind block. Take it in a in a microwave safe bowl and fill water above the level of the tamarind ( 2 to 3 cups of water ).
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Now microwave the bowl in high power for 1 or 2 minutes and leave them for 5 minutes to cool down a bit. Then squeeze the tamarind nicely using your hands or a big tablespoon ( you can notice the color change of the water went from light brown to darker brown ).
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Take a empty bowl and place them on the counter top. Now take the bowl with tamarind and water from step 2 and pour the mixture through a strainer and strain the tamarind juice / pulp by placing the empty bowl underneath to hold the extracted juice /pulp ( or you can strain the juice directly into your dish). By using a tablespoon or ladle you can press on the pulp in the strainer well so all the juice is extracted completely from the tamarind.
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There will seeds and fiber left in the strainer from the tamarind . You can discard it.
Notes
*Without using a strainer you can extract the microwaved and cooled tamarind and water using your hands as a strainer and by placing a bowl underneath to hold the extracted juice.
*If you do not have a microwave you can also use boiling water to soak the lemon sized portion of the tamarind . After adding boiling water to tamarind, leave them for 10 to 15 minutes. Then squeeze them well using your hands or ladle and then extract the juice /pulp using the strainer or using your hands.
*You can also extract 2nd time using the leftover (remaining ) tamarind pulp in the strainer . And repeat the whole step from the beginning again to get as much of the flesh/ pulp from the tamarind. (This step is useful if preparing Indian recipes like rasam soup , kuzhambu, sambar).
* Prepared Tamarind juice / pulp can be stored in the refrigerator for a week.
*Tamarind paste which is sold in the Asian market are ready to use and is a simple way to use them in your recipes.