Tamarind Honey BBQ Sauce

Chef Margot shares with us her slightly sweet tamarind honey BBQ sauce.

Tamarind is one of my personal favorite ingredients. You can buy blocks of the paste (which say seedless–but aren’t) in any Asian grocery, most Latin tiendas, and some Caribbean and African markets. It has a lightly sour flavor that it somewhat foreign to Western palates as it’s not accompanied by any type of acid. It grows in tropical climates and looks like an overgrown vanilla bean. You can also find them fresh, but they are a pain to peel, seed, string, etc. The blocks of paste can be simmered in water until soft, then pressed through a sieve or strainer to remove the pulp, seeds, and strings. It’s inexpensive to have in your pantry, and also opens another door into your cocktail and non-alcoholic beverages selection. Once you have the strained juice in your fridge, it will keep for about a month. Try it over ice with plain soda water, or make a West African cocktail with pineapple juice, rum or vodka and tamarind juice, topped with just a splash of soda– kickin’! Try adding it instead of sherry vinegar to a salad dressing too.

Ingredients
1 12oz. block tamarind paste
1 cup B grade honey (if you can’t find it, use grade A–I just like the darker stuff)
1 small white onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Pinch salt

Directions
Place block of tamarind paste in a medium saucepan with 1 quart of water and simmer until softened. In another medium pan, sauté the onion and garlic in a small amount of oil just until soft–do not brown. Add the honey and the strained tamarind juice to the garlic and onion. Simmer over low heat until thick and syrupy. Cool slightly before using to baste or glaze pork, chicken or fish. I find this sauce a bit too mild for beef, but that’s my personal preference. It’s absolutely awesome on salmon. Due to the high sugar content, you’ll want to wait until the final moments of cooking before basting with this sauce or it will burn.