Happy PandaSeedless Tamarind Paste 14 Ounce Package (Imli | Me Chua | Tamarindo)

I teach homeschoolers Spanish and endeavor to expose them to all kinds of things they haven’t experienced around the language, which includes food. I knew tamarind and knew it to be somewhat sweet when you open it from the husk. Well, I caused some laughter when I shared my experience making some cookies to share with them. I expected this to be sweet. Well, picture the sourest lemon you can imagine, then intensify that by two or three fold. My face did some contortions I didn’t know it could do! In the end, after removing tamarind and adding sweetener, the cookies turned out good (think “tamarind Newtons”). As it was so sour, I did get far too much tamarind paste!

This is kind of a strange product, but it was exactly what my recipe called for. There IS a difference between tamarind PULP and tamarind PASTE. This is tamarind PULP. It basically includes I think pieces of the tamarind pods--seeds, peels, etc. My recipe instructions said to mix with boiling water, kind of mash/break up the pulp, then let it sit for 30 minutes. Then you pour into a fine-mesh strainer and press the solids down to get a liquid. That is exactly what this product did. And, I'm glad I could buy a smaller amount (it's still a good-sized block considering my recipe only called for 1 1/2 T. and it was one of the cheapest tamarind pulp products on Amazon. My curry turned out wonderful, and I'm glad this was exactly what my recipe said it would be.

Having never bought or worked with tamarind paste before, I'm probably not the best person to write a review. But, I suspect there are plenty of others who are looking to try a new recipe as well. For me, it was a copycat version of the sauce that the Cheesecake Factory serves with their avocado egg rolls. I absolutely love it, and wanted to make something like that myself. This paste comes in the form of a brick. There are some seeds throughout, but they are easily identified and removed. It was easy to scoop into a measuring spoon and put into the pan. Not knowing what it was supposed to look like, how it was supposed to melt, etc. all I had to go on was the end result. The first recipe I tried did not come out well. But, I suspected that was the recipe and not the tamarind. So, I found another recipe and tried again. This time, my sauce was AMAZING! The tamarind melted well with the other ingredients, and my sauce was fantastic. The only complaint I have is that I wish it came in smaller packages. Between the two recipes, I don't even think I used a tablespoon. I have enough paste to do that about 40 more times!

I use this to make Pad Thai. I just add a chunk to about half a cup of very hot water while prepping my other ingredients then work it into a paste. I've used about half of it and only ran across one seed.

This is the flavor profile you want for Thai recipes. So if you're debating between this and some of the suggested items that are a pre-made paste, I recommend buying this one and making your own paste. The batch I received was very fresh and tasted delicious exactly as it should. I have already made paste and cooked with it twice. There are seeds and stringy pulp in this, so you'll need to have a collander to strain this into pulp fyi. I will certainly purchase this again very soon, probably in larger quantities. Thank you for having this product available to ship to my area for a reasonable price.

This spice was perfect for my Indian pheasant dish. Good quality.

Received today and the package was already opened. I am getting a refund, but this was sure an inconvenience because I wanted to cook with it tomorrow. Buyer beware!

This tamarind paste has a nice flavor, but it most definitely contains seeds. Small, hard seeds. There is also a proposition 65 warning on the package, but the only listed ingredients are tamarind and salt so I’m not sure what to make of that.