Hi Mamta and everyone,

I made tamarind chutney with Mamta's recipe for the first time yesterday. I am happy with my chutney (though no doubt it would have been better with the asafoetida - I din't have any.

I have a couple of comments.

I made the classic mistake of not reading the recipe through to the end first, so when I got to the line that says 'When seeds splutter, add tamarind pulp and all other ingredients' I did just that. Then when I got to the line that says 'add salt, Jaggery/sugar and chillies according to your taste and then 'add garam masala, stir and take it off the heat' I had already put all these things in.

I bought two packages of block Thai tamarind each weighing about 375 grams, and thought I might as well use all of it so I nearly doubled the recipe. That was fine but boy, was that tamarind sour! I had to nearly triple the amount of sugar and though I like the result it is still noticeably more tart than the commercial tamarind chutneys we have had before. (Perhaps jaggery is sweeter than Australian soft brown sugar??)

Finally, I would have appreciated some indication of how thick I should be aiming at. What I have produced is slightly more of a sauce consistency than a chutney one. Do you boil it just until you can see the bottom of the pan between stirs or is it a bit longer than that?

Still I am very proud of my six jars of tamarind chutney. And I think it is going to keep OK, luckily.

Heather

Thickness is to personal taste, I have seen it served in some places much thinner than I like it - for me, a ketchup consistency is nice.

Shall ask mum to clarify recipe instructions when she can!

x

Remind me in a couple of weeks. I don't have long enough access to the computer to do any editing. Suggestions make sense, I will go through the recipe again.

Tamarinds vary in their tartness, but I have checked out the recipe for Indian tamarind and it was fine. I will add something like 'you may need to adjust sugar amount significantly according ot the sweetness of tamarind you have and you taste. Kav, you are free to do it noiw, if you want. This computer is just too slow! I can't even be bothered to check spellings etc!