sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce...

Sweet chilly sauce is a common condiment and sauce in the western, Thai and Malaysian cuisine. Commonly used for seasoning stir fries or as a dip for fried snacks or to smear on sandwiches and rolls. The uses can always be to suit personal taste as I have liked Thai sweet chilly sauce with my omelets too. But this one is a slight variation of Thai sweet chilly sauce.

This sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce is a versatile sauce owing to it's ketchup like consistency. Actually when I gifted this sauce to a friend, she thought it is a tomato ketchup. Tamarind and ginger make this sauce quite interesting in the taste. It suits both Indian dishes as well as western style stir fries or as a dip.

Big fat red chilies of the cayenne pepper variety, are in season normally from January to March in the north of India and people use it to make stuffed red chilly pickle mostly. I use this variety of chilly to make chilly jam and orange or kumquat and chilly marmalade mostly. I also use this chilly as a substitute for red bell peppers to get a capsaicin flavor in my stews and salads sometimes as the husband is intolerant to bell peppers. Have a look what all I made using these chilies.

This sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce has become quite popular as an all rounder sauce at home. I don't do any straining when I make this sauce, except for the straining of the tamarind pulp after soaking seedless tamarind in hot water for an hour.

ingredients...

Fat red chilies (cayenne or jalapenos will be good to use) 200 gm
fresh ginger root 150 gm
seedless tamarind 100 gm
jaggery or raw sugar 650 gm
salt 1/2 tsp

procedure...

Soak tamarind for an hour in 2 cups of  hot boiling water and strain the pulp in a wide pan after mashing it properly.
Remove stalks from the chilies and chop roughly.
Clean the ginger root and chop roughly.
Puree the ginger and red chilies together in a blender.

Now keep the pan with strained tamarind pulp on gas stove. Add the chilly and ginger paste and the jaggery and salt and heat to boil the mixture. It becomes a little frothy first, lower the heat after this and simmer on low flame for about 45 minutes.

It can take a little more time to reduce and become the consistency of ketchup. You can reduce it further to a jam like consistency.

And the sauce is done. It is an easy sauce to make and you will be spared from many preservatives  colors and texture enhancers used in commercial ketchup and sauces. You might like to to strain the sauce half way into the cooking and then reduce it to desired consistency.

Fill the sauce in sterilised jars or bottles. This recipe makes about 900 ml of sauce. The sauce stays well on room temperature for about 4-5 months. Or keep it refrigerated if you live in a humid area or the jar keeps opening frequently. Using clean and ry spoons will be better or use squeezy type bottles if you wish to prevent contamination.

There are bits and pieces in this sauce since I haven't strained it after cooking the chilies and ginger etc but I like it this way. This way the sauce is not suitable for squeezy type bottles.

We like this sauce with our dahi bhalle chaat, as a dip for crackers, as a sauce for pakodas and even with parathas and omelet sometimes.

I am sure you would love this sauce, especially if you have kids at home. Many friends have been requesting me to make this sauce on a commercial scale and sell it in friends' circle. Yes, this sauce is that good. I will be making this sauce more and more to gift my friends and family as homemade gifts feel more personal to me.

what do you think?

imli wala kaddu | pumpkin stir fry with tamarind extract

Pumpkin is full of good fiber and antioxidants, good for health vitamins, minerals, especially beta-carotinoids and Vit.C, magnesium. The pumpkin seeds have zinc, as good as almonds in fact..

In India it is used in curries and desserts, both raw and ripe fruits are used to make curries but you'l get the raw pumpkin easily in markets, with creamy white flesh as well as yellow to orange flesh. Yellow and orange ones should be preferred to cook as they have more carotene content.

Some fat should always be used to cook pumpkin as the pigments are fat soluble and can be absorbed easily by the digestive system.

Pumpkin is good for wt. loss too as it has less calorie for more food and is reported to lessen fat absorbtion by the body from other food sources too (so it's good to have lots of kaddu ki sabzi with puri as the fat from puri will not be absorbed completely. You get my point.

Here I have used raw pumpkin which has fresh green skin and a deep yellow flesh, so no need to remove the skin and you get the carotenes too.

Recipe is simple and can be made with a southern touch if you add curry patta in it (which is good for wt. loss too) addition of tamarind extract adds to the antioxidant content. Deliciuous food that is superbly healthy too.

recipe is simple and needs a few ingredients..

cubed pumpkin with skin 400 gm.
mustard oil 1 tsp
asafoetida a pinch
rai (small mustard seeds) and methi (fenugreek) 1/2 tsp each
ginger and garlic crushed or made into a coarse paste 1/2 tbsp each (optional)
red chilly powder 1 tsp or a little more ( or 2 whole red chillies for tempering)
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
2 tbsp thick water extract from a marble sized ball of tamarind
salt to taste
5-6 springs of curry patta (if using)

to proceed ..

Heat oil in a kadhai and tip in the asafoetida and the rai and methi seeds.

Throw in the whole red chillies if using and curry patta (I did not use here) and ginger garlic paste, as soon as the rai crackles. After a few seconds add the pumpkin cubes too. Toss and mix.

Throw in the salt and turmeric powder and red chilly powder (if not using whole red chillies) and keep tossing and mixing.

Lower the flame and cover, cook covered till the pumpkin is soft but not mashed.

Pour in the tamarind water and cook covered for another couple of minutes.

Serve hot with puris or chapatis. This imli wala kaddu will become a favourite I assure you. I have served it to people who hated pumpkin and they started loving this gorgeous vegetable after that.

You can sprinkle some mint leaves or chaat masala over the subzi if you wish. Some bhuna jeera powder also makes it wonderfully flavourful if you want a chaat like concoction.

Tamarind does wonders to pumpkin trust me.