Tamarind pulp usually is sold in the form of a small shrink-wrapped package, compressed and very dense. To use it in a recipe, cut off a piece from your block of pulp and place it in a measuring cup or mixing bowl.
Cover the pulp with boiling water and let it sit for at least five minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain the liquid, picking the seeds from your strainer and pushing as much pulp through it as you can manage.
The end result should be a thin, brown sticky paste. Tamarind paste is a convenience product, very similar in its way to the garlic or herb pastes sold in the produce section of your supermarket. Tamarind paste is tamarind pulp with the seeds and fibers removed, just as you would at home.
It is packed in glass jars, or occasionally placed in plastic squeeze tubes like toothpaste. And if you're used to making your own tamarind water you'll have a more consistent result.
Tamarind paste or tamarind concentrate , and sometimes even called 'cooking tamarind', usually refers to the product you can buy in small plastic tubs usually the size of a typical tin of tomatoes or baked beans , or tiny glass jars.
It can also be called 'cooking tamarind'. Tamarind paste is already diluted but the dilution varies between brand. Therefore you should always taste dishes as you slowly add the tamarind because the recipe writer may be using a different brand to you.
Many recipe books will direct you to make your own tamarind water from tamarind pulp, so that you are using the same concentration as the recipe writer. If you always make the tamarind water yourself you will have more control. You can identify tamarind pulp because it is a firm block of the dried tamarind fruit, usually a rich brown colour, wrapped in see-through plastic. Once diluted, some also argue it tastes fresher than the more liquid tamarind paste or concentrate you'd buy in a tub.
If you are looking for something to cook something with the tamarind water, try our Perfect Pad Thai recipe , or shop for southeast Asian ingredients here. After a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant Nicola became obsessed with seeking the best flavours from around the world. She started Sous Chef in , and is always sharing her knowledge of ingredients and writing recipes to showcase those products.
Learning from the products, Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola has written the majority of the recipes on the Sous Chef website, all of which are big on flavour. Almost on a celestial par with making a good fresh tomato sauce is, for me, the soothing preparation of date and tamarind paste. When all the fibers and seeds are removed by soaking tamarind pulp in boiling water, further rubbing it through a strainer or sieve — the process yields a fine paste.
Both of them are quite interchangeable. You can also turn the pulp into tamarind paste by using equal quantities of boiling water and the fruit pulp from the block.
Soak the pulp i water for about 15 minutes, followed by stirring the mixture using a fork until you get a uniform consistency. The idea is to extract the juice and paste by pouring the mixture into a fine strainer and pressing on the solids.
The end results are a smooth paste that you can use in all the recipes that call for tamarind. Throw away the seeds and fiber. You can prepare the large batches of paste with the pulp using this method as it can easily be frozen in small forms that are more convenient to use. Ice cube trays may come handy to get this done. Whether concentrate or paste, tamarind is quite easy to use straight from the jar or tube.
Because of the unique sour taste, you will need some sugar or another sweetener in most recipes you make with tamarind. The fact that tamarind brings out a amazing sweet and sour yet subtle flavor to a dish makes it quite popular as an ingredient. Tamarind is used in various dishes in Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, including soups, sauces, curries, stir fries, noodle dishes and desserts. It is like the unprocessed version of tamarind paste, where the pulp is prepared from the whole fruits after they are skinned and compressed tightly together in a small shrink-wrapped package for sale.
Using this type of tamarind requires a bit of effort, as most times, you may need to process it to paste before use. Even in packages marked seedless, where you think the seeds have been removed, you will always find a fewer errant seeds.
It is a no-brainer that both are absolutely the same; the only thing different is in their packaging. While tamarind paste seems to be a more convenient product to use because it can be added directly to your recipe — saving you both time and effort — Tamarind pulp is the complete opposite. Although, some food enthusiasts argued that soaking and straining tamarind pulp tastes way fresher and better than the packed purchase of tamarind paste.
Meanwhile, most avid cooks claim they see little difference. For instance, the flavors may vary if other ingredients like artificial sweeteners or preservatives are mixed with either of them.
Another factor that might change the taste is how to ripen the tamarind fruit was before harvest.
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