Kamrak — star fruit, Averrhoa carambola — grows abundantly in the lower Sindh, particularly around Thatta and Hyderabad, and the sharbat made from its juice is a regional drink that barely exists outside the areas where the tree grows. The star fruit has a particular sourness — sharper and fruitier than tamarind, more delicate than citrus — and when juiced with black salt and a little sugar it produces a drink that is at once cooling, astringent and fragrant in the way that tree-ripened regional produce always is. It is a drink with a geography: made in Sindhi homes where the kamrak tree is in the yard, or bought from the vendors who sell fresh kamrak in season at roadside carts in lower Sindh.
Zone: Indus Plains
SOURCE: Sindhi household, Thatta, regional specialty, oral recipe, 2022
LOCAL NAME: کامرک شربت
INGREDIENTS
- 6 medium star fruit (kamrak/carambola, washed)
- 4 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
- ½ tsp black salt (kala namak)
- ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
- 800 ml chilled water
- ice to serve
METHOD
- Trim the five ridges of each star fruit, removing any brown edges. Roughly chop and blend with 200ml of the chilled water to a smooth juice. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing out all the liquid.
- Stir in the sugar, black salt and roasted cumin until the sugar dissolves. Taste — it should be sharp, faintly sweet and savoury from the black salt.
- Stir in the remaining 600ml chilled water. Adjust sweetness and salt to taste.
- Serve over ice in glasses. The sharbat is best made and drunk the same day — star fruit juice oxidises and loses its bright flavour within a few hours.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Star fruit (carambola) from large supermarkets, specialist grocers and Asian food stores — particularly good in autumn and winter when imports arrive. Choose firm, bright yellow fruit for the sharpest result. Black salt from South Asian grocers. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Star fruit (carambola) from H-Mart, Whole Foods, or Latin American grocery stores. Black salt from Indian grocery stores. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Choose the firmest, most tart star fruit rather than the sweetest — the sharbat needs the sourness of the kamrak to work. Very ripe sweet fruit produces a flat, over-sweet drink.
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