DIY homemade Tamarind Paste from Tamarind fruit pulp. This paste can be stored easily and used for various dishes and drinks. You can prepare the following from scratch with tamarind pulp: Pad Thai Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, HP Sauce, Meat Marination, Ketchup, Dipping Sauce, Tamarindo cold beverage, Cocktail, various Curries and more! Chef's around the world count tamarind paste to their secret food ingredients.
Grab a bowl and break your compressed Tamarind into smaller chunks. Add the hot water over it and let the tamarind soak for at least 30 minutes so that the pulp gets soft and detaches from the seed pod and other impurities.
Then mash your tamarind with your hands to help the pulp detach from the seeds and prepare a pot with a large fine sieve. Pour the tamarind into the sieve.
Now with a spatula press the tamarind pulp into the pot. The seeds and impurities will remain in the sieve.
Take out the impurities back to the bowl and add some more hot water (just a bit), mix and press through the sieve for the second time. As you will see a lot of tamarind pulp is left on the seeds and lot comes off when you press it through the second time.
Discard the seeds and impurities, they make great manure material for plants!
Place your pot with the cleared tamarind pulp/paste on the stove and heat up. The aim is to kill all bacteria and if you want you can reduce the paste to thicken it more.
Pour into a clean sterilized jar and store in the fridge for further use.
Video
Notes
You can choose to use compressed packed tamarind or use fresh tamarind. See my post for more info.
Use 250 ml for the 1st soaking. The second pressing requires a small amount of hot water extra. (see video)
Use sterilized jars and lids to store tamarind paste to hold longer
Do not skip the cooking part, you need to kill the germs in the tamarind paste, therefore it needs to be heated up.