hi, what is tamarind, and were can I obtain please

I bought mine in Tescos in the ethnic bit. You can get it in a liquid form or in a form where you have to soak it. Try it, its great.

Whoops, forgot to mention, its a souring agent like lemon.

Hi sensuousstan, Tamarind is used largely in Indian cooking to give a sharp, sourish taste. It comes in the natural state ie a hard brown pod a bit like a large pea pod which you crack open to obtain the fibrous, sticky fruit. Inside is a large dark brown shiny seed. To us in cooking you have to separate the husk, seeds and fruit pulp, saok the pulp in water and the pour/rub this through a sieve after you have stripped out the hairy fibrous bits. Naturally, this is a real pain so most people use what is known as "wet tamarind slab" this is a large slab of the fruit pulp with husks and seeds removed. Break off a piece, saok in warm water and pour the water and fruit mush through a sieve and rub through. The thick liquid is used for cooking. The next most processed version is "Tamarind paste or tamarind concentrate". This is the boiled, concentrated version with all the work done for you. Simply spoon it out of the jar. In India and the Middle East a sharp refreshing drink is also made from Tamarind paste and sparkling water.

The best tamarind I know of can be bought from Natco Online, the tamarind paste at [link]

and the wet tamarind at [link]

Indians prefer to cook with wet tamarind as the flavour is closer to natural tamarind but tamarind paste is worth it for the ease of preparation.

I find the flavour of tamarind very similar to that of maple syrup

Hi there. I bought a tub of tamarind paste from www.simplyspice.co.uk. A great website for indian ingredients