Tamarind-Glazed Fruits with Star Anise

Where Flavor was Born Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route by Andreas Viestad
Cookbook 8, Recipe 1 (Total 17)

Stephen gave me this cookbook. We love the infections enthusiasm in the TV series New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad. I chose this recipe because I'm always looking for yummy thick fruit sauces

Did I like it? A little but not much. The figs were nice but the rest of the fruit didn't match the weird flavor of the tamarind. It's a very punchy cross between citrus and molasses. I would make it again only with figs as a sort of very small accompaniment to something else. Vanilla ice cream tasted good with 1/2 of the fig on the side. I substituted fresh pineapple with star fruit (fresh pineapple makes me sick). Stephen strongly disliked it - no offense to you or the author but it's the worst thing you've made since starting this project...

Recipe:
Split and scrape a vanilla bean - place the seeds in a large bowl and the pod in a sauce pan. To the sauce pan add: 7 T brown sugar, 1 stock finely chopped lemongrass, 2 tsp minced fresh ginger, 4 star anise, 2 T tamarind paste and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes - until reduced by half.

Quarter and core 2 apples and 2 pears. Slice a star fruit in 1/2 inch slices, cut 8 figs and 8 dried apricots in a half. Rub all fruit with the vanilla seeds.

Heat the oven to 350 and place a 8 inch square pan in it to pre-heat.

Melt 4 T butter in a large sauce pan, add fruits and 4 T rum. Cook until fruits are slightly caramelized (I had to add 2 T brown sugar to get any sort of caramelization). Place fruit in pre-heated pan and pour sauce over. Bake for 10 minutes.