Tamarind Liquid - Preparation

Oh my goodness I totally forgot that I had promised to post a recipe for tamarind liquid (see Pad Thai recipe)! So sorry to all of you who are close to a tamarind tree and not to an oak!! I'm wishing I was closer to the tamarind right now because autumn has decided to come early and I'm cold. At least this morning everyone agreed that it is now autumn and no longer summer. Thus, I am now able to put the heating on without feeling bad about it!

But yes, back to the tamarind liquid.

Tamarind Fruit

If you happen to be able to buy tamarind pulp, great! Tamarind pulp is semi-processed tamarind, i.e. it has the shell and the seeds removed but still has the fibers in tact. If you can't get the pulp then you have to process the tamarind yourself.

I'm not exactly sure how many kilo's of tamarind fruit you need to get 1/2 cup (8 fl. oz.) of pulp so you'll have to experiment, but my guess it's quite a bit. Make sure your tamarind is very, very ripe and I would advise that you wear gloves because the acid in the tamarind can ruin your hands. This I know for sure because we used to have two tamarind trees and my dad would hire people to come and process them to be sold. The poor ladies who did the shelling ... , but there were no rubber gloves back then in Sri Lanka.

A tamarind tree

Remove the shell and the seed and then you have pulp! It's a good idea to remove the fibers on the sides too.

For the tamarind liquid you need 1/2 cup of pulp and 1 cup of warm water.

Place the tamarind liquid in a bowl and pour the warm water over it. Let it stand for 20 - 30 minutes, poking and mashing it occasionally with a spoon so that it breaks up.

Next pour the liquid through a sieve pushing the pulp against the sieve with the back of a spoon to get as much of the juice out as possible. Add water so that the liquid is about the consistency of softly whipped cream or a thick pancake batter.

This should make about 1 cup.