Kitchen Basics: Making Tamarind Water

Tamarind is a wonderful culinary tool, tasting a good bit like lemon, but a little darker and fruitier. While tamarind is not commonly used in the US, it is really popular in a lot of other places, often as a substitute for citrus and used as a souring agent. In India, tamarind makes a great chutney and is commonly used in cooked dishes all over the south. In Mexico, tamarind makes a wonderful agua fresco, very similar to lemonade. Here in Oregon, you seem to be able to get a bottle of tamarindo at any taco shop or truck.

But I mainly use it to create the national dish of Thailand, pad thai, in which tamarind is a key component of the sauce for the noodles.

Tamarind comes in several forms: as whole pods, in bricks of pulp and seeds, and as a purée. If you have (and likely overpaid for) tamarind purée, you're all set. If you have pods or a brick of pulp, follow the steps below to make tamarind water, which is what you'll need for pad Thai, tamarind chutney, or to flavor a curry.

A Whole Tamarind Pod

What we call tamarind is the seed pod of a leguminous tree with African heritage. If it looks to you like the seed pod of an acacia or pseudoacacia, you're right. They're in the same family. Covered by a suede-like peel, the flesh is sticky and contains large seeds. It is the flesh that we use to make tamarind water.

I'm not sure what conditions are like where you are, but out here in Oregon with our large population of people of Mexican heritage, you can find tamarind pods in many large groceries. We can buy just what we need without having to buy an entire brick of pulp or container of purée.

Peeled Tamarind Pod

Tamarind peels easily with your fingers. As you work with it, you'll see that the pod has transverse ridges. Between every two ridges is a seed. My working rule of thumb is that the flesh of every six seeds will make a half a cup of tamarind water. If I'm cutting tamarind pulp from a brick of tamarind, I'll use the same amount, about one and a half to two ounces of tamarind.

Six Sections Per Half Cup of Water

For each half a cup of tamarind water, I break off six sections containing six seeds. In a bowl, I submerge the tamarind under warm water and let it soak, periodically rubbing the flesh off the seeds.

Tamarind Water

After a half an hour in warm water, you'll be able to work the tamarind with your fingers and rub all the flesh into the water. Discard the seeds and you're ready to use the tamarind water in your dish.