Baked Fish with Tamarind

March 9, 2006

It comes in dark brown blocks of sticky pulp. It looks like compressed dates. Tear off a little piece and pop it in your mouth and your salivary glands leap into action. It’s fruity, tart and not unpleasant. It’s tamarind.

The word comes from tamr hindi – date of India. But it is not a date. It is a bean-like fruit, native to Asia, India and north Africa. Initially the pods are tender with highly acid flesh and soft white seeds. As they mature the pods fill out and the juicy acidulous pulp turns brown then dehydrates into a sticky paste.

It is a popular souring agent in Indian cooking and is also used in Middle Eastern cuisine. It is a key ingredient in Worcestershire sauce.

Tamarind is also known as Imli, ambilis, amli, tintiri, tintul, titri, teteli, and tamarindo. It  is also available in cans as a paste and in jars of concentrated pulp, though the block tamarind is more flavourful.

Tamarind trees grow very tall and the natives of India reputedly consider it is unsafe to sleep under the tree owing to the acid they exhale during the moisture of the night.

To use in cooking, place a couple of tablespoons of tamarind pulp in half a cup of hot water and stir around. Leave it for about 20 minutes and knead the pulp lightly with your fingers, separating out any stones if present. Press through a sieve to remove any fibres. A tablespoon of this tamarind water can be sweetened with a little sugar and topped up with soda water and ice for a refreshing drink. Or it can be used in a dish such as this fish dish from Iraq which I learned during a Middle Eastern cooking course.

Baked fish with Tamarind
Serves four

50g tamarind pulp
3/4 cup hot water
one whole fish weighing about 1.5–2kg, gutted and scaled (tarakihi, groper or snapper)
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1 tomato
small bunch parsley

Cut the flesh loose from the bone on one side of the fish (you may wish to remove the bone frame completely, but keep the fish looking whole, ie don’t cut through the flesh at the back). Salt the fish well and refrigerate overnight.

Soak the tamarind pulp in the hot water, removing stones and fibre. Mix with your fingers to a smooth liquid. Place the fish in an ovenproof dish and open it out. Pour the tamarind over the opened out fish.

Dice the garlic finely and sprinkle over the fish, then the chopped parsley and the thinly sliced onion then the sliced tomato. Fold the fish closed and bake in a pre-heated 180C oven for 20 minutes or until cooked.

Serve with lavash – a flat bread similar to naan – and a side dish of tomato, cucumber and red onion slices sprinkled with a little malt vinegar and salt.

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