Tamarind Paste

Does anyone else use this stuff?

I remember years ago I experimented with the actual tamarind pods or bricks, but it was always a pain to separate the seeds and it never really worked out.

Last year I discovered this stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Neeras-Tamarind-Concentrate/dp/B000EA0DF8 at Whole Foods and was immediately taken by the concise ingredient list: tamarind fruit. (Too often these extra flavor 'sauces' have way too many ingredients/sodium/fat). But unlike the fruit pods, it is a dark syrup that is incredibly easy to use and incredibly full of flavor. Perfect combination!

The one down side is that the lovely mouthpuckering sourness is not wine-friendly, but then again we don't drink wine most nights.

Thus far I've mainly been adding it to my beans, cabbage salad, various sauces and such, but then it often becomes a background note. Anyone else use this stuff and have other ideas?

Unfortunately, the only things I remember using the tamarind paste we have for is with beans (lentils in a kind of sambar) and as a marinade for pork and lamb (which you don't eat!)

Yes, I use tamarind paste wherever tamarind pulp is called for in Indian recipes now. I used to use the bricks of dried tamarind pulp, but as you did I found the reconstitution and filtering process too much of a bother. The only drawback to the tamarind paste from a jar is that a lot of recipes assume you're using fresh or reconstituted pulp and so determining the amount of paste to use sometimes requires some extra thought.

-Paul W.

Love the stuff, Rahsaan.

I get it here locally at the Uwajimaya Asian food store, but it's available in a lot of the Mexican specialty stores as well.

Unbelievably cheap at less than $2 for a good sized block of the wet tamarind, and all the messy processing is done.

Use it frequently in cocktails: makes a superb Tamarindo Margarita (Wet Tamarind mixed with lime juice, a touch of orange juice, good triple sec if desired, good reposado tequila, and served up with a chipotle-cinnamon rim). Also, there's a local noodles shop that makes a tamarind-based Malaysian style noodle soup that is just so incredibly tasty that I've taken to adapting lots of soups to a tamarind base.

Our local but internationally known Thai/pan-Asian eatery, Pok Pok (with an outlet in New York City now,and apparently popular there as well) has a dish-that-may-not-be-removed item, Vietnamese Tamarind Chicken Wings, that are devastatingly good---either the best or second best chicken wings I've ever had, with the wings from Points East Pub in Milwaukee WI fighting it out constantly as my other fave---and they're pretty habit-forming.

So, yes, I share your joy.

Cocktails/drinks! There's an idea. Unfortunately we don't really make them, but it's certainly a good idea.

Cocktails/drinks! There's an idea. Unfortunately we don't really make them, but it's certainly a good idea.

But you can make agua tamarindo! Prolly want to wait until summer, but some of that wet tamarind in a clay jug of fresh water, let it evaporate just a bit to cool it down...very refreshing.

It's used as the sour note in some Thai recipes. Also used in some Caribbean cooking It freezes well.