tamarind

[English]

Tamarind is a sour-sweet fruit, sometimes known as the Indian date, used as a souring agent. It is available mashed and formed into a pulpy block or as a juice. In this form it is used like lemon juice.

Fresh tamarind comes in long, dry brown pods which look almost like dried broad bean pods. Inside is a long, segmented fruit, like a long brown caterpillar. Each segment contains a hard, shiny black seed. As the pods dry the fruit becomes sweeter. A visitor from Mauritius suggested shaking the tamarind and, if you could hear that the fruit had detached and was rattling a little inside the pod, you would find that the fruit was sweet. All you need to do is to remove the pod and then chew the fruit, discarding the seeds.

Synonyms in other languages

Assamese

Bengali

Gujarati

Hindi

Italian

Konkani

Latin names

Malayalam

Nepali

Oriya

Punjabi

Sanskrit

Sinhala

Telugu

Related terms