Sweet Tamarind Chutney
Sweet Tamarind or Khatta Meetha Imli Chutney is a quintessential sweet and sour chutney used in most of the Chaat items and also served as an accompaniment or dipping sauce for many other Indian snacks like Kachori, Samosa, Pakora, Dhokla etc. It is such a core ingredient for making chaat that I cannot imagine any chaat being prepared or served without this chutney.
Sweet Tamarind Chutney is primarily made using Tamarind, Dates and Jaggery. The tanginess from the tamarind is perfectly balanced with the sweetness from the jaggery and the flavours get lifted with an array of Indian spices that are added to it. Dates are naturally sweet and slightly sour and echo the flavours and taste of this chutney. They also add a great texture to this chutney.
A perfect tamarind chutney must be silky, glossy and have the perfect flowing consistency. It should neither be too thick or too thin. It must be perfectly balanced too, neither too sour, nor too sweet. It must also have a deep, dark golden brown colour.
Since this chutney is mostly served as a freebie in the chaat and snack joints, it is generally way too diluted especially in the not so good eating joints or take aways! Sometimes I have seen this chutney to be as thin as water and I feel, what a shame! On the contrary, when you go to a good chaat shop or halwai place that serve some great snacks and chaats and tasted their fabulous chaat, have you ever wondered what make them so great? A simple answer – the quality of this Meethi Chutney! I always ask the chaat wale bhayya to add an extra serving of this chutney while making my chaat, as I really love the sweet, sour and spicy combination especially in chaat items like Aloo Tikki chaat or Samosa chaat.
This chutney is truly an unsung hero in the chaat items and I always feel it must get it’s due and credit and respect, so I thought of starting with this recipe before I post the recipe of any other chaat items.
This chutney is really easy to make and also has got a good amount of shelf life when stored in refrigerator (around 6 to 8 weeks). Trust me, the flavours and balance of this chutney is bang on and at par with the ones that you get in one of the best chaat houses. Of late, I have seen that this sweet tamarind chutney has also hit the supermarket shelves with it’s ready made versions. They generally contain preservatives and needless to say do not taste as authentic as the halwai shop ones. I am sure once you start making this chutney at home, you would never go back to the store bought chutney. So let’s look at some of the tips for how to make a perfect sweet tamarind chutney.
Tips for making perfect Sweet Tamarind Chutney
Talking about the ingredients, this recipe demands a good quality seedless tamarind and jaggery. It is important to use seedless tamarind for this recipe, as the tamarind pulp would be blended and we don’t want to accidentally blend the seeds. Similarly, we need to use the seedless variety of dates as well. So make sure that all the seeds from the tamarind and dates are removed before soaking in hot water.
This chutney always tastes best when it is sweet. Though this is called a sweet and sour chutney but the extra sweetness brings out a great taste. So make sure the amount of jaggery added is more than the tamarind and dates put together. A good tip here is to also use some sugar in combination with jaggery. This adds a different dimension to the sweetness. Similarly Dates also has it’s natural sweetness however tastes different than jaggery and sugar, so all these three ingredients together adds a great depth of sweetness to this chutney.
Talking about the spices used in this chutney, some of the most important ingredients in this list are roasted cumin powder, dry ginger powder, fennel seeds powder and Kashmiri red chilli powder. Though there are other spices in this recipe, but these are a definite must and add great depth of flavour to the chutney.
To make a perfect Halwai style chutney, add some melon seeds and roughly crushed coriander seeds too. They add a slight crunch to the chutney and tastes good too.
The last important aspect is about how to increase the shelf life of this chutney. The first point to be noted here is to not make this chutney too thin, as more the amount of water, the quicker it tends to get spoilt. So follow the measure of water in this recipe for a perfect consistency. Also do not cook this chutney too far, else could become too thick. This chutney can be kept thick as well and stored and as and when needed, water can added in small portions to adjust the consistency. You can add some citric acid right at the end to further increase the shelf life. This chutney should stay good up to 2 months when stored in a glass jar and refrigerated. Make sure to use a clean spoon when serving.
Serving Suggestion
Sweet Tamarind Chutney can be used generously in making various chaat items like Aloo Tikki Chaat, Raj Kachori, Sev Puri, Bhelpuri, Pani Puri etc. This chutney along with the green coriander and mint chutney makes a perfection combination of chutneys for the chaat. This chutney can also be diluted with plenty of water to make the ‘Meetha Pani’ for Pani Puri.
This Khatta Meetha chutney also tastes fabulous with Samosa, Kachori, Pakora, Dabeli, Dhokla and other Indian snacks.
Sweet Tamarind Chutney
Equipment
- Measuring Cups & Spoons
Ingredients
- ½ cup Seedless Tamarind
- ¼ cup Seedless Dates
- 1 cup Jaggery grated
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 2 cups Water
- 2 tsp Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds or Jeera
- 1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1 tsp Roasted Cumin or Jeera Powder
- 1 tsp Rock Salt or Kala Namak
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Roughly Crushed Roasted Coriander Seeds optional
- 1 tsp Melon Seeds optional
- ½ tsp Fennel Seeds or Saunf Powder
- ½ tsp Dry Ginger Powder
- ½ tsp Chaat Masala
- ¼ tsp Pepper Powder
- ¼ tsp Citric Acid optional
Instructions
- Measure exactly ½ cup of seedless tamarind and ¼ cup of seedless dates and transfer to a bowl.
- Add 1¼ cup of hot water to tamarind and dates mixture and let it soak for 2 hours till they become soft. If you are in a hurry, soak at least for 1 hour.
- Now blend this soaked tamarind and dates mixture along with the water in which it was soaked. Blend this to a fine paste.
- Now use a sieve and filter the paste. At this stage add around ¾ cup of water to strain out the tamarind and dates pulp completely.
- The pulp must be of flowing consistency. So in all we have used 2 cups of water to achieve this consistency (1¼ cup for soaking and ¾ at the time of straining the pulp)
- All the impurities must be left behind in the strainer like this. Discard this.
- In a kadai or pan, heat 2 teaspoon of oil and add 1 teaspoon jeera and ¼ tsp asafoetida.
- Once the cumin seeds crackle, add the tamarind and dates pulp. Bring this to a gentle boil (should take around 5 to 6 minutes)
- In the meanwhile measure 1 cup of grated jaggery and ¼ cup of sugar.
- Now add the jaggery and sugar to the kadai and cook further for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Once the mixture comes to a good boil, add all the spices listed above (except melon seeds and citric acid). Cook the mixture on medium flame for another 6 to 7 minutes till it starts becoming slightly thick.
- Add the melon seeds to the mixture and cook further for a minute.
- The chutney is ready once the mixture starts coating the back of spoon and it must look like a sauce type consistency. Do not cook further.
- Finally add ¼ teaspoon citric acid and turn off the stove.
- Bring the chutney to room temperature and store in an air tight glass jar in refrigerator.
Notes
- Make sure to use seedless tamarind and dates for this recipe.
- The amount of water mentioned in the recipe is just perfect to attain the right consistency. It would be a sauce like consistency and neither too thick nor too thin.
- Make sure not to add excess water as it could decrease the shelf life of the chutney.
- You could make this chutney without the dates too. In that case substitute dates with the same amount of jaggery or sugar.
- If you do not want to use sugar in this recipe, you could again replace it with equivalent amount of jaggery.
- Do not cook the chutney for too long. Once it attains a sauce type consistency turn off the flame, else it could be become too hard of thick. The chutney also thickens slightly on cooling.
- Store the chutney in a clean glass jar and use a clean spoon each time while serving. If you do not refrigerate this chutney, the shelf life would be slightly less.
- Citric acid is optional which helps in increasing the shelf life. Add it right at the end of the cook.
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