Tamarind and Date Gravy

Tamarind is sour in a way that vinegar is not, rounder and slightly fruity, and dates are about as sweet as food gets. Put them together and you have the backbone of brown sauce and of a good sweet and sour sauce. It makes a thick, dark, glossy gravy that goes with pork belly, lamb shoulder, duck or a plate of roast root vegetables.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for six plates

• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil or pork fat
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic sliced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 6 (about 80g) soft dates Medjool or similar, stoned and chopped
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste level, the dark concentrated sort
• 600ml (1 pint) hot chicken or beef stock
• 1 tsp tamari or ordinary soy sauce if gluten is not a concern
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Stick blender
• Fine sieve
• Wooden spoon

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the onion over a medium heat for eight minutes until soft and starting to colour at the edges. Add the garlic and cumin and cook for one minute, stirring, until the cumin smells toasted.

2. Add the chopped dates and stir them around for two minutes. They will start to break down and stick slightly, which is fine, keep the spoon moving.

3. Spoon in the tamarind paste and stir it through. It smells sharp and slightly sulphurous on its own, and that settles down once the stock goes in.

4. Pour in the hot stock, bring to a simmer, and cook uncovered for twelve to fifteen minutes until the dates have completely collapsed. Squash a piece against the side of the pan to check, it should give with no resistance.

5. Blend with a stick blender, keeping the head under the surface, until smooth. It will be very thick at this point because the dates are doing the work of flour.

6. Push it through a fine sieve into a clean pan to catch any bits of date skin, pressing hard with a ladle.

7. Warm it through and loosen with hot stock until it pours properly. Add the soy sauce and taste. It should be sour first, sweet second, savoury underneath.

8. Season with salt and pepper. If it tastes flat, add another half teaspoon of tamarind rather than more salt, since sourness is usually what is missing.

Tips worth knowing

• One level tablespoon of concentrated tamarind paste in 600ml is right. Two will make the gravy properly sour and slightly astringent, and you would then need so much date to balance it that it becomes a chutney.
• Tamarind products vary wildly. A dark thick concentrate is much stronger than a runny sauce or a block you have soaked yourself. Start with two teaspoons and taste before adding the rest.
• Six soft dates is the limit. More and the gravy sets to a paste in the fridge and needs so much stock to loosen that the flavour thins out.
• Sieve it. Date skins do not blend fully and they give a fibrous texture that is very noticeable in a smooth gravy.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps five days in the fridge, since the acid and sugar both help it along, and freezes for three months. It sets very thick when cold, so reheat gently with a good splash of stock and whisk it smooth.

Questions people ask