As a lover of sour lemon and lime desserts, I’m always on the lookout for other ingredients to satisfy my tangy cravings. Rhubarb, passion fruit, gooseberry and red currant all visit my kitchen when they come into season. But only tamarind has permanently moved in.

Tamarind, specifically the paste, has taken up residence in my fridge door, where I can easily grab it to stir a tablespoon or two into stir-fries, soups, curries and chutneys — anywhere its fruitiness might brighten savory aromatics like garlic, ginger and chiles.

It also works perfectly in desserts, especially creamy ones, where it adds characteristic verve to the richness of dairy. In this recipe, tamarind paste stands in for Key lime juice in a sweetened condensed milk-based pie with a crunchy graham cracker crust.

Like the citrus, tamarind’s sharpness cuts through the potentially cloying aspects of all the sugar. But where Key lime has floral, herbal notes to soften the acid, tamarind is heady with molasses and dried fruit, which I round out with a little orange juice for smoothness.

Plopped into a pie filling, the tamarind might be hard to place. If you didn’t know what kind of pie you were eating, you might think it was some combination of lemon, dried apples and dates, but zingier and more pungent. The graham cracker crust and fluffy whipped cream topping, however, make everything familiar. Bouncing from sweet to tart, it can be hard to stop eating once you start.

You can find tamarind throughout the year, which makes this an excellent, all seasons confection. In warmer weather, I like to bring it out after a simple dinner of grilled chicken or fish and vegetables. But on colder nights, it’s also just right after a cozy stew or braise, when a dense custard pie is exactly what your body demands.

Depending upon where you shop, the hardest thing about making this pie might be finding the tamarind paste. Otherwise the recipe is dead simple, and you can bake the pie up to three days in advance.

Then just before serving, whip the cream, sweetening it just a bit, but not enough to interfere with the pucker-inducing sourness of the filling. Because puckering is part of the pleasure of this deeply creamy pie.

TAMARIND CREAM PIE

By Melissa Clark

>> Crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 11 sheets of crackers)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), melted

>> Filling:

• 1 large orange
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup tamarind paste, extract or concentrate (see note)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice, to taste (from 1 lemon or lime)
• Pinch fine sea salt

>> Topping:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

To prepare crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees, and place a rack in the center of the oven. In a large bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs and butter. Transfer mixture to a 9-inch pie plate, and press it into an even layer on the bottom and up the sides.

Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet, and transfer to oven. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile…

To prepare filling: Halve the orange and squeeze juice from one half, for about 1/4 cup. If not, squeeze some juice from the other half. Reserve squeezed halves for zesting for garnish.

In bowl of an electric mixer, using whisk attachment, beat egg yolks until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Turn mixer to low and slowly add condensed milk, scraping sides if needed. Whisk in tamarind and orange juice until just combined, then whisk in lemon or lime juice and salt.

Scrape mixture into cooled pie shell, then return to oven and bake until filling has just set, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Just before serving, make topping: In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat together cream and powdered sugar until thick and fluffy. Dollop on cooled pie. Finely grate the zest of reserved orange halves over pie, and serve. Serves 8.

>> Notes: There are two distinct products that may be labeled tamarind extract, concentrate or paste. One is syrupy and nearly black, without any pulp. (Tamicon tamarind concentrate is one brand.) The other is lighter in color and pulpy; it looks like apple butter. (Swad is one brand.)

Try to use the pulpy kind here: It’s fresher-tasting. But if you can get only the concentrate, use 1/3 cup and skip the lemon or lime juice.

You can also make your own paste out of pure dried tamarind fruit that’s either pulled directly from the pods or sold as a sticky brick. Soak the fruit in boiling water for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then drain. Use your hands or rubber spatula to mash it into a paste. Strain it through a fine mesh sieve. The fruit will vary a lot in its acidity, so use 1/2 cup of it for the pie, along with as much lemon or lime juice as you need to make you pucker.