Tamarind Chutney

A classic Indian chutney and, I swear, the inspiration behind Daddies and HP Sauces - which are complete examples of British food that has its origin in the recipes imported by red-faced colonels back from a lifetime's tour on the Deccan.

If you can’t get black salt, use the white stuff. If you don’t tell, I won’t. If you can use jaggery, do. It's amazing stuff and it has a rounder, subtler caramel flavour to the slightly more aggressive dark sweetness of brown sugar.

Ingredients

• 125 g tamarind
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp black salt (kala namak)
• 6 tbsp jaggery or brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp table salt

Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of hot water, leaving it steeping until the seeds can be fished out of the dark goo. Mush it all up well, then press the mixture through a sieve to get the thick pulp out. Put the pulp in a pan together with the chilli powder, black salt, cumin powder, table salt and 1/2 cup water and let it simmer on a slow heat till it thickens a little. Now put in the sugar and let it cook till it assumes the consistency of a thick sauce. Take it off the heat and serve cold.