kuTTunDe/chigLi (imli ki goli)

Here's the second of my 'Tamarind' series. I bet every place in India has its own version of this..should I call it a 'dish'?, no it's more like a candy. Long forgotten, it symbolizes a girl's childhood. Sadly, not anymore... though it may still exist in some rural places. Known as kuTTunDe in Kannada, it is the rustic version of the commercial sugar-coated Malaysian tamarind toffees available in Food World etc., kuTTu = pound and unDe = ball, hence the name, as the process of making it involves pounding tamarind with spices and condiments. It is also known as 'chigLi' in some parts of Karnataka. As suggested in my post on Tamarind, making this justified stealing the ingredients from the kitchen in my childhood days. We friends would get one ingredient each, find a safe, 'clean' place and stone for pounding them and get to action. The final product would then be divided among all, rolled up into balls and stuck on the back of spoons or ice-candy sticks and Voila! our savory lollipops would be ready. Compared to those, current day lollipops SUCK.

Even today when I wanted to make it, I had to resort to 'thieving', if you can call it that. I had all the ingredients on hand, there was no need to steal any of those. What I did not have was a mortar and a pestle for pounding. So, I picked up a smooth oblong stone from below some plants on the lawn of a shop as I was walking along the sidewalk. After thoroughly scrubbing and washing it with soap, it was all ready to pound away. What I thought to be very easy, took me really some time to complete. As kids what we would achieve in no time, today took me several taste tests and more than 1/2 an hour to get there. Finally, it turned out as good as it used to be. Tangy and spicy... totally heavenly! Please do share with me your version of this treat. I would love to hear it all!



Ingredients :
Tamarind, one Lemon sized. Remove the seeds and the fibrous veins.
Salt, to taste
Jaggery, a little less than the tamarind
Chilli Powder, to taste
Cumin Seeds, 1 teaspoon
Oil, 1/2 a teaspoon



Method :
1. Using a mortar and pestle(if you dont have one, use a stone and a hard surface), pound together the cumin seeds, salt and chilli powder until coarse.
2. Then add the jaggery and tamarind and pound with one or two drops in between, until everything comes together and feels soft and smooth.
Adjust the ingredients to desired taste.
3. Divide the whole lump into small portions and roll out smooth balls of desired sizes.
4. Stick them on spoon handles or sticks and lick away to glory.
5. Beware of getting addicted!

Tamarind Trilogy

I know.... I had vanished into thin air(wish I could...). Well, May and June was a whole month of travelling - packing, taking off, returning, unpacking, LAUNDRY.... and falling ill and recovering (of which we took turns).... so, my blog had taken the backseat. But now I am back with a Bang!!! or should I say TANG, the Tamarind Tang I mean :-) Through all the mayhem of May and June, I always found time to peek into the food blog world. The other day I saw Sig's JFI-Tamarind announcement and was lured back into my own sadly neglected blog.

Tamarind, the very name brings back to me lots of sweet(!?) memories and doesn't fail to make my mouth water in anticipation of the tangy taste. I just love the sweet 'n' sour taste. The first bite into raw tamarind, that unfailingly makes you squeeze your eyes shut or wink, pucker up ur lips and fills up your mouth with saliva is oh! so heavenly. It immediately transports me back to my school days where a piece of tamarind was the BEST treat one could possible get or give. More than 90% of the girls I know, love tamarind. It surely must be a 'girly' thing, something in our genetic construction that triggers the love.

I remember an incident that happened during my 10th Standard. There was this girl called Ronia C George(yup, I remember her full name), who was new to school, and was desperately trying to fit in. She would come to school everyday from a nearby village. She somehow let a few of us know that there was a tamarind tree back at her place. After much pestering she agreed(she had no other choice, poor thing) to get some to school, and her 'some' turned out to be a huge plastic bag full of juicy ripe tamarinds in their shells! It was a dynamite combo, 'A class full of about 70 or so girls and a bag full of fresh ripe tamarind' It was the worst kept secret. What was meant for just a few of us, passed from hand to hand and the whole class was a giggling, signalling, begging, passing, slurping, tamarind eating, shell throwing frenzy. By midday, the whole floor of the classroom(below the benches only) was strewn with tamarind shells. We miraculously escaped being caught by all the 4 teachers who took classes before lunch. The frenzy continued right through lunch time. Some girls from the neighbouring classes joined in too...Before anyone of us could realize lunchtime was up and Sister Chantel(hope I got her name correct, but I definitely remember her face that day) who had the first class after lunch walked in. She was horror struck to see the classroom. By now, most of the shells had escaped the confines of the benches and desks and were scattered all across the room. You can imagine what must have passed after that.....
Poor Ronia ended up gettig the max number of 'bad points' for the month, and we all had to stay back and sweep the classroom clean :-( But, no regrets there ;-)

My infatuation with tamarind goes waaaaaaaay back, when as 8-9 year olds we would steal tamarind, jaggery etc from the kitchen, pound them all together to form a ball that we would stick on a stick and suck on it happily, ending up with cracked tounges....I guess I was among the first ones to rejoice when Hajmola came up with their 'Chulbuli Imli' and I would never return from the Rajasthan/UP/Orissa etc handicraft melas without a stash of the lip smacking imli, mango, pomegranate churans. Even to this day, a small piece of tamarind inevitably ends up in my mouth while I take some out for cooking, for which I have endured many a teasings(you are eating tamarind!! anything special???). Sweet, huh?? or is it rather Sour???

This event has brought all that back to me. I want to present these three dishes for the event, honoring those days and my favorite Tamarind.

Paani-Poori
kuTTunDe
Khara Pongal with huNase gojju

Thanks Sig for choosing this wonderful ingredient and Indira of Mahanandi for starting the JFI event.