Tamarind is one of the not-so-secret ingredients in a lot of Asian cooking. Eating a bowl of pad thai or a spoonful of chutney with your roti, you might not necessarily realize it's there. But if it's left out, food just don't taste quite right! What is this mystery ingredient?
Until we started researching this post, we didn't realize that the tamarind tree is actually native to Africa. The ingredient is so ubiquitous to Southeast Asian cuisine that we assumed it was from there! Tamarind trees have also spread to the Pacific islands, Mexico, and parts of South America, and gets used in the cooking from those regions as well.
The edible portion of the tamarind trees comes from the seed pods, specifically the pulp surrounding the seeds within the pod. This pulp is very tart and sour when slightly under-ripe and grows progressively sweeter as the fruit ripens. It has a bright, citrusy flavor that enhances the other flavors in a dish in much the same way as lemon juice.
Tamarind adds a subtle sour flavor to curries, noodle dishes, soups, and sauces. In can be used in marinades since its acidic qualities help tenderize meat. You'll also see tamarind used in desserts, candies, and cold beverages, and it's one of the main ingredients in worcestershire sauce!
You can find tamarind in pod form, as a block of pulpy paste, as a concentrate, or as a powder. We mostly tend to cook with the paste, which needs to be soaked in hot water and strained of seeds before being used. To be honest, we don't have a lot of experience with the pods themselves - do any of you?
If you've never cooked with tamarind before and are curious to try, check out these recipes!
From the Kitchn:
• Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry
• Culinary Cocktails: The Spicy Cool Flavors of India
From Around the Web:
• Sweet and Sour Tamarind Chutney from Food and Wine
• Pad Thai from Chez Pim
• Coconut Shrimp with Tamarind Ginger Sauce from Epicurious
Do you do a lot of cooking with tamarind? What's do you have to say about it?
Related: Cooking by Feel: Indian Flavors and Ingredients
(Images: Flickr members laughlin and neajjean licensed under Creative Commons)
My Staple Summer Cocktail Recipe: Campari & IPA Spritzer
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Bacsac Bacsquare 04...
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
I've found the pods in the market but I've never used them. I'm tempted now.
I love eating Tamarinds out of the pod, but they do vary a lot in how sour they are depending on their varieties. The sour tamarind is often used for making the cooking paste that you mention above and the sweet tamarinds are more for snacking, eaten right out of the pod--you can bite off the tender, sticky fruit and spit out the seed in the center of each bit. It would be pretty laborious to make your own paste.
In Thailand a lot of soups and stirfries (esp. those made with seafood) are heavy-handed with tamarind paste, which I love. This recipe for a tamarind-flavor soup with salmon reminds me of what I often had while I was there: http://importfood.com/recipes/tomsompla.html
the sweet(er) tamarind variety is widely used in mexico for candy-making, snacking, aguas frescas, and (my favorite!) as a topping for raspados.
My family would snack on sweet tamarinds while watching tv. My sister would amuse herself by taking the empty shells and putting them on her fingers to make them gnarly witch hands. This was somehow hilarious....
I cook with it a lot, as I cook a lot of Indian and Thai food. Mostly I use the blocks of compressed dried tamarind that you reconstitute with hot water to make a paste. I also use the concentrate, but only for certain Indian dishes, and only for those for which the dark coloring isn't an issue for what I am making. My favorite thing to do with it is a Thai ginger and tamarind fish soup - so refreshing!
I eat them out of the pods, they're addictive to me. Then I usually keep the seeds and dry them a little on the windowsill and when I have enough, put them on top of indoor plant soil. They look pretty and are hard as rocks - no bugs!
I've never eaten them out of the pod but as a kid the corner store near my elementary school use to sell the tamarindo (spanish way of saying it) as a paste in a little cup for a quarter. I love tamarindo liquid on top of fruits (melons, mangoes) and cucumbers.
I always thought it was South American. Lots of tamarindo ice (though now I find most of the syrup too sweet). It's one of my favorite flavors but I've never actually cooked with it!
They're definitely nummy out of the pod, and there's also a tamarind candy that's sweet and sourish that you can find in some Asian markets.
There's also a Filipino dish called sinigang that is basically a tamarind-based soup you can eat with rice. It's my most favorite Filipino dish.
I write about it in my blog, also referencing where ingredients can be bought in the Boston area (not an easy place to be a Filipino cook):
http://greenestmermaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-much-i-and-bill-love-sinigang.html
when i was in Laos, all i ever ate was unripe tamarind pods. so sour! but so tasty. i love tamarinds to death. i could eat hundreds of them. they add such a distinct taste to the dishes my mothers make, if anyone asked for one of those dishes sans tamarind, i would think those people are nuts. that tamarind is what makes and adds the flavor, it has sweetness and sourness, you dont need anymore than that in a Southeast Asian dish!
Yummy! Yummy! Yes, in Mexico I grew up eating it like candy-a sweet tamarindo paste in little plastic pouches or cups, but like bedtime-for-gonzo said, we use it in drinks and other snacks. . . well . . . this post has made me homesick and hungry. . . :o)