BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Indian Food Samosa dipping sauce

I buy samosas from an Indo-Pak grocer in Richmond, and He has a dipping sauce that he will not share the recipe. It has a dark color, and is sweet & spicy. I am guessing a tamarind base, with sugar and vinegar. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I would love to find out how to make it at home. Thanks!

I will dig up a recipe and post soon. It is usually a combination of tamarind, dates, raw sugar (jaggery) and other spices. I will post when I have a few minutes.

I do have a great recipe for a cilantro chutney which is also a great dipping sauce for samosas and other Indian snacks. Leave a note if you are interested, and I will post it.

Please share both. I am still wanting the recipe for the Samosa too. I requested a while back, and no one noticed my post.

Here is the cilantro chutney recipe. This is an Afghani/Indian recipe.

8oz Cilantro leaves
2 to 4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 to 6 fresh green chilies, depending on heat and heat tolerance
Juice of 2 limes (start off with juice of 1 lime)
4 fresh mint leaves
1 tbl spn olive oil
Water
2 tbl spns walnuts, chopped
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in the blender. Add just enough water to allow the ingredients to move in the blender. Grind to a medium smooth paste. Add salt to taste, adjust lime juice content to suit your taste. Allow to stand for at least 1 hour before serving.

Notes: You can eliminate the olive oil if you wish, but the olive oil adds a little richness to the chutney. You can also replace the lime juice with vinegar, but I like the freshness of the lime juice.

It's almost like making pesto. Thanks. I'm trying it!

TAMARIND DATE CHUTNEY

8-oz � Dates, pitted and chopped
1.5-in ball � Tamarind
�-tpsn � chili powder (powdered dried red chilies)
�-tspn � cumin powder
2 cups water
Salt to taste

Soak the ball of tamarind in 1 cup of water. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave. Allow to stand for 1 hr. When cool, knead the tamarind with your fingers to break down the tamarind. Strain and collect the extract. Discard the solids.

Combine the dates, tamarind extract, 1 cup of water, chili powder and cumin powder in a sauce pan. Bring to boil over medium high heat. Then lower heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Cool and blend to a paste/liquid in a blender of food processor.

Add salt to taste.

NOTE: You can find tamarind in an Indian or Asian grocery store. It comes in the form of a slab � about 1 in. by 3 in. by 5 in. I prefer the product from Thailand because it is a bit more processed than the Indian product.

Thank you for the recipe, are you sure that I need to microwave for 30 minutes? At what power?

Newbies welcome to the forum, We hope that you all enjoy your stay!
Rosie

My bad! That should be 30 seconds.

ATTENTION MODERATOR: Is there any way that my Tamarind Date Chutney recipe can be changed to show 30 secs instead of 30 mins??

How did the cilantro chutney turn out??