You can make spicy and salty tamarind candies to give away to friends, chutneys to perk up your meals, soup bases to brighten up a winter dinner...

lots of middle eastern recipes use tamarind!

Love this recipe --

http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/11649/2006/03/01/Sweet-Potato-and-Chickpea-Curry/recipe.html

Plus, tamarind chutney is the best accompaniment for samosas.

This is my Mum's recipe for Vietnamese Hot & Sour Soup:

Saute 1-2 cloves of garlic (chopped) in a little oil, in a pot, for 30 seconds (don't let it burn). Add 4-6 cups of water, then add the tamarind, 1-2 golfball-sized piece. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer. Ladle out the tamarind into a small bowl with a little bit of water. Break up the tamarind which should be soft and pliable. Using the ladle to break up and extract the pulp into the water. Pour the pulpy water back into the pot, using the ladle to keep the seeds and fibres in the bowl. Now add more broth into the bowl and repeat the extraction. Do this one more time. Discard seed and fibres. Taste your broth for tartness. If it's tart enough for your taste, season with fish sauce and add fresh chilis (optional). If it's not tart enough, repeat the process with more tamarind or add some lime/lemon juice. This is the base for hot and sour soup.

That's it. It's not a hard or long process. My mother, depending on mood, will add chicken, or beef, or seafood to this and then adjust the seasoning with more fish sauce, salt, and/or sugar. My favorite combo is beef, fried tofu, and bean sprouts. I also love salmon, pineapple, and shrimp.

Many Thai dishes are made with it as are many Indian dishes. I happen to like these:

I make this similarly, but with ginger instead of ginger flower, and no salam leaf:
http://www.indochinekitchen.com/recipes/clear-fish-soup-with-tamarind/

I make a similar curry to this. There are tons and tons of Indian recipes that use tamarind though. I also make dal, brinjal, bitter melon, and many other things with tamarind:
http://www.indianfoodforever.com/non-veg/fish/kerala-fish-curry.html

Add it to your dhal, it really perks it up.

Fry some chopped garlic, tomatoes, salt, and tamarind until soft, squeeze over some lime, and serve with a coconut vegetable curry and rice. Delicious and quick.

Sinigang is a Filipino soup that uses tamarind to sour it.

Over rice, it's total comfort food: http://wp.me/p14qCO-cq

I use it in Pad Thai, yellow curry, in homemade barbeque sauce, in sour mix to make tamarind whiskey sours, and in tamarind chutney.

i love tamarindo. common in lots of latin-american food as well. paletas, mineral water with tamarind, granola comes to mind...

I just brought back some tamarind paste from Mexico. I'm going to try some of these ideas; they look great! My one tamarind venture thus far was to make Mixed Cherry Tomatoes with Tamarind Dressing (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mixed-Cherry-Tomatoes-with-Tamarind-Dressing-105419)
to serve with steak. Then decided that dressing would be good on salads, rice, pasta, etc.

Use tamarind paste in your curry recipes.

Make a sauce for pakoras.

Make tamarind margaritas!

Tom yum soup...

Some recipes do not have tamarind and rely on lemongrass. I personally love the versions with tamarind the most.

Tamarind juice- in a blender blitz maybe 3-4 tablespoons of pulp with a tablespoon (or more if you like) of sugar and enough water to make a cup, then serve over ice.

Ponche navidades!

I love tamarind barbecued chicken!

I use it in my homemade Worcestershire sauce.

Malaysians use it often in dishes like 'ikan asam pedas' (hot and sour fish) or you could make a refreshing drink out of it. Just add lime juice, sugar/honey, water and ice. Oh, and try googling 'sambal belacan'.

I've used in for lentils, chili, swirl cookies with dates. Go crazy.

Could you make tamarind newtons?

essential for massaman curry, check out my recipe for how to use it:

http://www.brettonstuff.com/index.php/thai-food/massaman-curry/

I love tamarind spare ribs at a local asian restaurant. Don't know of any similar recipes, but you could probably add it to bbq sauce for spare ribs or lots of other meats, shrimp, yum.

in El Salvador we use them for Tamarind Candy. Just add sugar to taste (2 cups of sugar per 1kg works good for me), a bit of water, blend it together, roll them into little balls and decorate with sugar, cocoa powder, or even chili powder (they're supposed to be a bit sour). They do these in Mexico and other areas of Central America too http://www.mexicodulce.com.mx/img/tamarindo.jpg

You can make a really delicious cocktail with whiskey, tamarind, ginger.

Rasam, sambaar, chatni, chats.. whole lot of indian dishes.

In my country we use it to make juice, besides its highly recommended by doctors when you have problems with your urinary system