Healthier Homemade Tamarind Sauce

As a great fan of Moo Shoo Pork and hoisin sauce, I had a sad turn of events recently. As part of my personal program to make the most out of each calorie I take in, I started taking a serious look at the labels in the multi-cultural food store I frequent. Sugar and salt are the big things that Asian bottled sauces rely on and are my focus to reduce. Two of my favorite sauces, the aforementioned hoisin, and Sweet Thai Chili Sauce, are much like ketchup in that they are loaded with sugar. Sad but true, and I won’t let a sauce take away from my allotment of cookies later.

Recipe for Tamarind Sauce

1T Canola or Peanut Oil, your choice
12 ea Garlic Cloves, Chopped
1 ea Jalapeno, chopped with seeds
1 pound Tamarind cake
½ t Anise powder
½ ea Orange, peel and pulp chopped (see option below)
Water to cover generously. About 1 gallon.
2/3 C Low sodium soy sauce
1/2 C Agave Nectar. Or 1 pound brown sugar.

Equipment:
A very strong china cap or colander or food mill, pot, spatula, 4 quart storage container.

Method:
Produces 2 quarts

1. Over medium heat, sweat the garlic and jalapeno in oil.
2. When the garlic starts to turn color add the anise, tamarind cake, and water, and simmer for 30 minutes. Break up the cake as it loosens. The more thoroughly the fruit is cooked away from the pulp, the better your sauce will be and the straining process will be easier. At this point you should have 1¾ quarts of liquid to strain. Add the chopped orange during the last five minutes of simmer.
3. Turn off the heat and pour through the china cap or colander or food mill if you have one, and push all the juice though. If your volume is 1-2/3 quarts after straining the tamarind will be enough to thicken the sauce nicely. I like to avoid starch thickeners if possible.
4. Place the strained liquid back on low heat and add the soy sauce and brown sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. If you use agave nectar you can do this process off the heat. The sauce should have a nice balance of sweet, salt, sour, and the flavor of the tamarind. If you want it a little sweeter then go for it.
5. Option: if I had my druthers, I would zest and juice the orange into the final sauce for a more vital orange flavor, or just to the portion that I was going to serve with the current dish.

Notes: I suppose you could use something like Splenda or stivia, both of which are much more intensely sweet (so use sparingly). Frankly, I am not a fan of either. But I will continue working with stivia to see if I find something that works. Amazingly, even with this amount of sugar, it is far less percentage-wise than what the labels were saying in the store. If you use agave nectar the glycemic index for this sauce falls dramatically.