The first time I tried Tamarind Margarita is at Reposado in Palo Alto. Tamarind is known as assam (a Malay word) in South East Asia, and it is mostly used in dishes such as assam fish, assam laksa, and assam prawns. Its acidic and I love assam dishes, especially when used in Nonya cooking. But assam magarita? I’ve never heard of this cocktail in Asia. I tried a glass. Its good, its super expensive too at Reposado.

While looking up an assam prawn recipe, I stumbled upon Tamarind Margarita again. This time, I prepared a bottle of assam paste so that I can try all the assam recipes in one fell swoop.

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 3 oz fresh lime juice
• 3 oz tequila
• Chilli lime salt
• Dried citrus wheels for garnish

Directions

Tamarind Paste

You can buy a block of seedless tamarind pulp from Asian supermarket. The pulp is sticky and fibrous. While you can mix the pulp with water to prepare tamarind juice when needed, I find it more convenient to prepare tamarind paste ahead. Refrigerate or freeze the paste so that it is easy to incorporate into your dishes when the recipe calls for tamarind. Needless to say, I used most of my tamarind paste on margarita 😛.

To prepare tamarind paste, soak the block of tamarind pulp in hot water to soften it. Wearing food prep gloves, press the pulp through a fine sieve to extract the tamarind paste.

Tamarind Margarita

1. Rub a piece of lime on the outer rim of two cocktail glasses.
2. Roll the wet cocktail glass in chilli lime salt.
3. Add ice into cocktail glasses.
4. Add the remaining ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.
5. Cover and shake vigorously until shaker is misty.
6. Divide margarita into the two glasses.
7. Garnish with dried citrus wheels.
8. Serve immediately.