Spiced Tamarind Drink

This is a spiced drink that I have served to tee-totalers when weve eaten Indian food. An Indian friend once told me that she knew a drink like this as "rassam" in her home in Madras. 1. Pull the pulp apart and put it--pits and all--in a 1-quart mason jar with one pint of water. Refrigerate overnight or over two nights. 2. Make a massala. Put into a mortar or a blender or what-have-you the coriander, two teaspoons of cumin, the peppercorns, and the mustard. Pound and rub to crack the seeds well, but dont reduce the seeds to powder. Set aside. Mince the garlic cloves. 3. Pour the tamarind water into a saucepan. Lift the pulp out, squeeze it well to extract any juice, and throw it away. Pits too. Taste it at this point. You get a nice, sourish, citrus flavour. Add the chicken broth, the massala, and cloves to the saucepan. Add salt and MSG to taste. Bring to a simmer. 4. Dice the green pepper and put it into a dry saute pan with the additional teaspoon of whole cumin seeds. On low, toast the pepper and cumin for about two minutes. Stir constantly. Then add to the simmering liquid. 5. Cover and simmer for five more minutes. Let the liquid cool, strain, put in the mason jar, and refrigerate until needed. To serve, dilute with ice water to taste. I serve it as a cocktail--in small glasses, like the ones you use for serving tomato juice, say. I have no idea how the Indians drink it. Posted to FOODWINE Digest 11 Sep 96 From: "David L. Rados" <radosdl@CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU> Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 10:03:03 -0500