My very old tamarind tree is now in fruit and I am not looking forward to that. Reason being is that I seldom use it and the ripe fruit falls to the ground. It becomes so messy that it is very difficult to walk under the tree without the sticky fruit clinging to shoes. I will now have to rake several time a week instead of once a week. I could make a drink out of tamarind or make tamarind balls. But that takes too much sugar which am trying to cut back on. For those of you who don't know tamarinds it is the most sour of fruits. It is a pod fruit and can be used green and dried. As a child in Trinidad we would eat it with salt and pepper or rolled in sugar into a ball. I used to boil a syrup with it and add spices. It was delicious. In Barbados they would put it in cane syrup in a crock and leave it for several months to a year. That is sooo delicious , my mouth is watering now that has a unique taste and is no longer found. If I can get some cane syrup I would love to do some. It is difficult to get even though we produce sugar our second industry after Tourism. The sugar produced is for export to Europe for foreign exchange and sold below costs. On the local market we are made to pay high prices for that same sugar. At one time we were importing sugar because there was no local sugar available, and we grow it!! But now I cannot eat as much acid as before and am cutting back on the sweets so I will have to throw them in the compost heap unless I can get some recipes from my friends in the Caribbean, India or Thailand. I see tamarind paste used in Thai cooking as a sour for the sweet and sour. I have tasted the most delicious Tamarind chutney from Trinidad and I would like a recipe. There are also some sweet varieties of Tamarind, I found some in Martinique and boy they were sweet. The flesh was almost black in colour like a dried prune and scrumptious. But of course I had to inherit the "sourest" (if that is a word) tree in the world. The tree itself is old and knarled quite beautiful and is probably over a 150 years old. So folks send or point to me any recipes that you have tried or know of and I am thanking you all in advance.
