I forgot to mention that my wife is Indian, so a lot of the recipes I’ll be posting will be Indian dishes. I also like Chinese, Thai, Greek and Lebanese, Italian, and Mexican food, so you’ll see some of those as well, plus the occasional American or European dish. The lime rice recipe I posted previously is an Indian recipe, and this tamarind rice recipe is also Indian, perhaps more so. Tamarind is a pod that produces a chocolate brown, sweet-sour pulp. You should be able to find jars of tamarind concentrate paste in your local Indian store (unless you are unfortunate enough not to have one). The ingredients for tamarind rice are essentially the same as for the lime rice, but the recipe is changed slightly to accomodate the different main ingredient.
Tamarind Rice with Peanuts
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked basmati or regular long-grain rice
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seed
- 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
- 1/4 cup dried yellow split peas (chana dal) or split and hulled black lentils (urad dal) (optional)
- 1 fresh jalapeno or 2-3 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chilis, chopped finely
- 1 medium onion, chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate paste
- 1 cup water, approximately
- 1 teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne/red chili powder
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Recipe
- Cook the rice. I usually use a pressure cooker.
- I prefer to grind the mustard seeds because I don’t like biting into a whole one and don’t yet have the skill or patience to cook them in oil just long enough to “pop” them. If you use whole mustard seeds, heat the oil and mustard seed in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the seeds begin to pop, cover the skillet and wait until the popping stops. If you use ground mustard seeds, see below.
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat. If you are using whole mustard seeds, follow step 2 first then do the following. Add the chopped pepper, onion, peanuts, and chana dal. If you are using ground mustard seed, add it after a few minutes. Stir-fry until onions soften and turn a golden brown.
- Dilute the tamarind paste in approximately 1 cup of water (add more if needed) and pour the mixture into the skillet. Add remaining ingredients and cook on medium-high for about five minutes or until the sauce is reduced (much of the water is cooked off). Be sure to leave enough liquid to coat the rice. The purpose of this step is to cook the tamarind.
- Take off the heat, add the mixture to the cooked rice, and mix well. Enjoy!
Note: If you have a low tolerance for spicy food, or a high one!, you may want to adjust the quantity of pepper in the recipe.
Political Science PhD
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