Tamarind fever...

Last night, in a fit of boredom with my dissertation reading, I decided I needed to make something.So, I started making the gravy for tamarind rice around 12 am and I finished this morning at 8am. I did go to bed around 2 am, so I really can't say that I stayed up all night making tamarind gravy!!

Since I mentioned; I am going to post my recipe so you can enjoy it too :)

Ingredients :
Water - 2 Cups
Tamarind - 1 1/2 tbl spoon
Sesame seeds - 1/4 Cup
Coriander seeds - 1/4 Cup
Red chillies - 15 Nos
Mustard Seeds - 2 t spoon
Channa dal - 1 t spoon
Urad dal - 1 t spoon
Curry leaves - few
Fenugreek - 2 t spoon
Sesame Oil - 3 tbl spoon
Chilly powder - 1 t spoon
Roasted Peanuts - 1 t spoon
Salt - to taste
a pinch of asafoetida

Method; First soak the tamarind in a cup with warm, then roast the fenugreek, coriander seeds, 4 red chillies, 6 curry leaves, urad dal, channa dal, mustard seeds and sesame seeds and grind it with salt to powder. Then heat the sesame oil in pan, add mustard, channa dal, urad dal, peanuts, red chilies, curry leaves, powder that you had made along with the peanuts and sauté them. Once sauteed add the tamarind, a pinch of asafoetida and salt to taste. Now for the next hour or so you would have to sit right next to the pan and keep stirring it constantly till the tamarind extract reduces its volume and becomes to a thick pulp. Et Voila!! the Tamarind gravy is ready!!

I did not find any canning jars so I recycled a candy jar. I am not trusting it to seal properly so I am storing my tamarind gravy in the refrigerator. Now I need to make some rice to go with it and run to Walmart to get a jar to store my tamarind gravy as it will last me for more than a week!! Now this is called smart cooking ;)