Topic: Tamarind Paste in Madras

[Bobby Bhuna]

Who's heard of this going on? I found a movie on utube of a guy making chicken Madras. Looks ok - right pan, right spoon, big burner, good method etc. only I've never used it in a main, only in the base. Is it similar to adding lemon juice?

[Yousef]

This will probably give you the sour taste that you sometimes find in a madras.

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Indian-Food-TRS-Tamarind-Concentrated-Paste.html

Stew

[JerryM]

i'd never used tamarind until i tried ifindforu's base and was pleasantly surprised - then UB came up trumps on his pathia.

i'd never thought i would get close to making a good pathia but UB's does - i put it down to the tamarind producing the sourness.

for me putting it in a madras would be sacrilege (yes had to get the dictionary out).
Chris303 has said a few times about the differences in i think what peoples expectations are and how this has been influenced i think from where the BIR/TA is located in the country or more probably what style the BIR chef bases his cooking on - i don't know enough about this and feel i should.

in short some might - for me no way.

[Derek Dansak]

The tamerind concentrate paste gives a huge amount of extra richness to the curry taste, also having a savoury slightly sour, almost licourice taste. If over used it dominates the whole taste of the curry, and ruins it. It is not like any other ingredient. I use only about half or at most 1 teaspoon of conentrated tamerind in my madras (4 people serving size). It works well with curries based around tomatoe , fresh green chillies, peppercorns, lots of onion, mushrooms, tomatoe puree, coriander, brown sugar. Tamerind ruins kormas and dansaks which should be sweet and light. There is a pataks tandorri or vindallo paste jar which is labelled as high in tamerind. I am now going to experiment with using a tbs of this instead of pure tamerind concentrate. I hope it may taste a lot better, as pataks are good in small quantities. I will post my results here in the next week or so. Hope this is of use curry kings and queens!   

[Bobby Bhuna]

This sounds like something I'm just going to have to try for myself to fully understand. I'm going to try adding a 1/2 teaspoon of it at the adding of the spices stage of a fairly standard Madras recipe and see what happens. Surely it can't be that bad!

[JerryM]

Bobby,

take head of Derek?s good words - the concentrate is real strong stuff use only 1/4 tsp at the most (UB makes a mix for the patia with water which helps control the amount u want to use). i'd perhaps add after the base has gone in or at least after 1st dollop - it's pretty thk sticky stuff.

Derek's certainly got me interested (the madras ingredients sound spot on except the mushrooms for me) but i'll await your thoughts on this one as i must admit i remain dubious.

[Derek Dansak]

I think tamerind paste in madras is valid for traditional indian cooking of madras. However all the BIR madras dishes i have tried (and believe me there are a lot!) seem to not include tamerind. However i like the tamerind 'effect' and its well worth experimenting with, in small quantities, especially if you like a rich dark flavoursome curry sauce. 

[Bobby Bhuna]

Ok, thanks. I have noticed that on my jar of tamarind paste it says that the paste is less strong than actual tamarind. What's going on here then? It's close but not quite there, e.g. 3/4 strength of the real thing. I guess it's just like garlic paste out of a jar - it's not concentrated, it's just minced and probably looses a little flavour sitting in the jar.

[Unclebuck]

Ok, thanks. I have noticed that on my jar of tamarind paste it says that the paste is less strong than actual tamarind. What's going on here then? It's close but not quite there, e.g. 3/4 strength of the real thing. I guess it's just like garlic paste out of a jar - it's not concentrated, it's just minced and probably looses a little flavour sitting in the jar.

Hi bobby, it does come in few different forms i all ways use TRS triple concentrate as stew has listed above. I have tryed myself in madras but doesn't work for me i so use lemon juice for a tartness. I have heard people using Worcestershire sauce in curry cooking which sort of ties as tamarind is one of the ingredients. UB.

[JerryM]

Bobby,

u must have duff stuff.

brand Tamicon, directions for use: one teaspoon for 6 persons

mines like treacle on a finger test it?s clearly black gold and an essential in the cupboard for me