Tamarind Balls

Tamarind grows wild on many West Indian islands (other countries too of course)
It's a funny looking fruit... if it is indeed a fruit. I suppose it's more like a bean or legume, it grows in pods and can be sweet or sour, or a combination of those two flavours. If you find a sweet tree(or sour, it's a taste thing), feel free to burst open a ripe pod and go to town.. not literally, well unless you ant to actually go to town. They usually fall off the tree when ripe, the shell/pod becomes a brown colour and you can crack it easily with your hands. Also... if the tree is on someone's property, maybe ask before picking.. I'm just saying.

One of the treats islanders tend to bring back from a trip to their homeland is a bag or few of tamarind(tambram) balls. You can get them in other countries, but I've found the price here off-putting, and sometimes the actual tamarind is dried up looking, also half the fun of buying tamarind balls is knowing the person you buy from, people sometimes have a particular vendor whose snacks they always buy. It's just a thing.

I was at a farmer's market some weeks ago and as I was about to leave, I spied some tamarind already weighed and bagged up, and I can be a little bit of an impulse buyer, so I took a bag home. Kinda forgot it was there to be honest until this week. So I made a few tamarind balls. 

They're not difficult to make, and if you have stress or tension or feel the need to beat someone with your shoes, but jail and .. assault is wrong... maybe take it out on the tamarind. You have to squish the pulp along with sugar (I used brown) with your hands to get it pliable, it takes a while, and was oddly comforting. 

Some people add minced hot pepper to theirs, I just added some black pepper. when you get the taste you like, (you will have to stop squishing it at some point), make into balls and roll in some white sugar.

I don't have a recipe, but if you want to try it out yourself, here's something you can follow TamarindBalls


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