Ingredients:

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   1      piece         tamarind -- size of a tangerine
   1      tablespoon    sugar -- up to 1 1/2
   1 1/4  teaspoons     salt
   1      teaspoon      roasted -- ground cumin seeds
     1/8  teaspoon      cayenne -- up to 1/4, up to
   1                    ripe but firm banana

Preparation:

Soak tamarind overnight in 2/3 cup hot water in small nonmetallic bowl. Once it has soaked, mash down and break the lump in the water, making a thick, uneven pulp. I use my hands for this,but you could use the back of a wooden spoon. Place a strainer over o nonmetallic bowl, put the tamarind pulp in the stainer, and press down with the back of a spoon. Keep pressing until nothing but fibrous tissues and seeds are left in the stainer. Discard fibrous tissues and seeds. Make sure you scrape all the strained pulp on the outside of the strainer- it doesn't always drip down. Mix the strained pulp with the sugar, salt, cumin seeds, and cayenne. Slice a peeled banana into 1/4 - 1/3 inch slices and mix with the tamarind pulp. and serve other chutneys and pickles also!! serves 4-