Tamar Hindi/Tamar Al Hindi/Tamarind drink

I sure am a festival blogger who pops in times of Vishu and Onam. I took up a wobbly job and by no means it is stopping me from coming here and if you think I am not properly fed…. you are wrong guys! My blogger mamma is home and she is cooking up way more than I could eat …… and I am spoilt. Apart from that, I remain the same with constant itch for recipes, made new friends as passionate as I am for food, and now I am brimming with recipes.  I even leached out a recipe from my boss. I feel like I am on the verge of explosion with a world of recipes shared by like minded people who believes recipes are to be shared, so I thought to come back here and spit it all out. I have also got a new friend who reserves a seat for me our ride back home from office so we can talk about food and only food. Crazy it may seem, but you understand. Don’t you?

Tamar Hindi is a popular Ramadan drink, where tamarind is the main ingredient.  We usually use tamarind only for flavoring sambars, rasams, and theeyals in our house, so it came to me as a surprise to know how potent indian dates (that is what tamarind or puli is called) really are.

The drink by the very look is muddy, not at all appealing, and taste is a sour-sweet combination. Over here, arabs add a dash of rose syrup to make it look more adorable. Although I love all things sour, I was wrong here. It was not definitely my glass of drink, but my family loved it.  So can’t say it is an acquired taste.

Ingredients 

Tamarind block –  50 gm

Sugar – ¾ cup

Ginger chopped – 1 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Method

Soak tamarind in a cup of water for 1 hour. Squeeze out the pulp and discard the seeds and fibers.

To the tamarind pulp, add sugar and ginger. Stir well and once the sugar is dissolved, add 3 cups of water. Bring it to a boil. Switch off the stove. When it is not hot anymore, add ice cubes and serve chilled. 

If you don't like ginger, before serving add cardamom powder. 

You can use dates syrup, honey, etc., as alternatives for sugar.  

Add rose syrup, if you are looking for a deep color. 

Kaplanga Vellapayar Erissery/Raw papaya and Black eyed bean curry/Raw papaya and lobia curry

Ingredients

Raw Papaya - 1 medium

Vella Payar/lobia/black eyed beans - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

To Grind

Grated coconut - 3/4 cup

Garlic - 2 cloves

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tempering

Coconut oil

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal -3/4 tsp

Dry red chillies - 2 Nos.

Curry leaves

Pearl onions - 3 Nos.

Fried grated coconut - 1/4 cup



Method

Pressure cook vella payar until 2 whistles.

Pressure cook papaya, turmeric powder, chilli powder till 1 whistle.

Grind grated coconut, garlic, and cumin seeds to a coarse paste.

Add the coarse paste, cooked vellapayar, and salt to cooked papaya. Boil them. Switch off the stove, when curry thickens. Add little water if necessary.

Tempering

Heat oil in a pan, crackle mustard seeds and urad dal. When urad dal starts to change color, add dry
red chillies, curry leaves, pearl onions, and grated coconut. When grated coconut is light brown in color, pour this mixture over curry.