Tamarind

I'd certainly seen tamarind before and even used it a handful of times, but no one I know outside of kitchens I've worked in has had much, if any, experience with it. In America you don't see it very often outside of Florida or the Southwest.

As it is an evergreen, tamarind tends to be eaten in warmer climates that support the tree. Africa, India, southeast and East Asia, and South America are amongst the prominent producers and consumers of the fruit. The culinary and medicinal (tamarind is a natural laxative--another conversational gem for you) applications are numerous for the tamarind. It is found in soups, marinades, sauces for fish or real meat, desserts such as ice cream and sorbet, pickling recipes, and in drinks such as the refreshing South American agua fresca. Though in some places the seed is cultivated to be particularly sweet and therefore edible straight out of the pod, tamarind is typically used in its concentrated pulp form.

Buying tamarind as a pulp saves you countless hours of processing. Now to me, this can qualify as arduous work under the right circumstances, so perhaps I'm not the best judge. But if you love torture and hate fun, go right ahead and buy the pods, squeeze them, blend them, and pass them through a chinoise about sixty times to produce a paltry yield. And after your crippling bout of rheumatoid arthritis, feel free to take a light stroll.

I opted for a blurry shot because otherwise you'll wonder if you went to a German fetish site.

Sure it may not look like much, but it least it's really acidulous. And while it's not mouth puckering, tamarind pulp is definitely what you would call "tart." It also has a smooth sugary flavor to it that stays on your tongue until the finish and even a bit of spiciness. Tamarind pulp really is ideal for all sorts of dishes from many different cuisines due to its sweet and sour nature. Taking a cue from one of my favorite cookbooks of all time, Hot Sour Salty & Sweet, I thought I would highlight these flavors and enhance them in a sauce to braise some short ribs in. Over Thanksgiving a slow cooker arrived for my birthday (which is in July--thanks big bro!), so I was excited to break that bad boy in.

Short Ribs Braised in Tamarind BBQ Sauce

2 lbs. short ribs
5 shallots, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2" nub ginger, minced
2 C chicken/veal stock
1 C ginger ale1/2
C tamarind pulp
1/2 C ketchup
1/4 C brown sugar
3 T soy sauce
1 star anise

Combine all the ingredients other than the ribs. Set aside 1/2 C of the sauce. Sear the ribs in a pan on all sides and drain them of fat. Put the sauce and ribs in a slow cooker on low for 6 hours (or a Dutch oven @ 325 for 2 1/2-3 hours).

Heat your charcoal/gas grill to high. Remove the ribs from the slow cooker/oven and drain them from the fatty oils that will have accumulated it. Place them on the hot grill and cover with the remaining BBQ sauce until a crust has developed. Remove and serve with rice and a light salad.

This has to be my easiest recipe to date, at least in terms of technique. The short ribs are fatty-- but not oily--Hearty, slightly sweet, and super tangy. The smell coming from my slow cooker was heavenly (read: I'm a male and I like the aroma of cooked dead animals), but I'm not going to lie, I am partial to conventional American or Korean BBQ sauces. While I could taste the tamarind, there are just so many more sweeter substitutes that I prefer for this kind of sauce such as hoisin or apricot preserves. The crust is nice from the grill, but tamarind really is just a little too piquant for my likes. I'd give it about a 6/10. That's a relative ranking, of course, as some people clearly have no standards.

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