This recipe is adapted from a favorite cookbook author, Neelam Batra (1000 Indian Recipes). You’ll find fenugreek seeds (a mustard-colored, flat and squarish whole Indian spice, pictured at right-center in the photo below) at Whole Foods or other high-quality markets, but you’ll probably need to head to an Indian grocery for jarred tamarind paste (also called tamarind concentrate). If you live in the San Francisco Bay area you shouldn’t have any trouble locating one nearby, and the trip is well worth taking for inexpensive bulk spices, tea and unusual produce as well.
