Neata Tamarind

Product Description

There are several varieties of tamarind. Some yield fruits that are very sweet, without the slightest trace of sour. These sweet varieties command a high price at the market and are sold in their ripened pods to be eaten fresh as fruits. The province of Petchaboon in northeastern Thailand is known for its sweet tamarind (makahm wahn). Each year, when the fruit comes into season during the dry months, a Sweet Tamarind Fair is held with lots of festivities and lots of delicious tamarind to sample and take home. During this time of year, bags of the plump brown pods are peddled around by street hawkers as well as piled among colorful fruits at fruit stands across the country. The prized good-eating varieties even find their way into prepackaged gift baskets sold in modern Bangkok supermarkets, alongside imported fruits, canned goods and chocolates.

More common varieties produce tart fruits that vary from sweet-and-sour to mouth-puckering sour. The less sour ones – removed from their brittle pods and coated with a mixture of salt, sugar and crushed chillies – are a delight to nibble. They wake up the mouth, get the juices flowing and temporarily quench thirst. Others are cooked in syrup with their seeds strained out and made into candied tamarind. They are great for the digestive tract and have a mild, natural laxative effect. Additionally, tamarind is believed to possess blood purifying properties.If you are able to find sour tamarind pods, break open the brittle pods and remove the moist flesh from the strings that hold them in place. Remove the seeds and use the meat to make tamarind water or juice. For more consistent results in cooking, I use "wet tamarind" (makahm bpiak). This is the dark brown flesh of ripe sour tamarind removed from the pods, compressed into compact blocks and sold in Thai and Southeast Asian markets. Labeled as "wet tamarind" or simply "tamarind," most brands already have the fibrous strings and most of the seeds removed. In buying wet tamarind, I usually squeeze the package to feel its softness; a softer package generally is fresher, more moist, easier to work with and yields better-tasting tamarind juice

Besides using it in cooking, wet tamarind is a valuable silver polisher; the large silver factories in Chiang Mai use plenty of it to shine their beautifully tooled silver bowls and jewelry to an impeccable sheen.

In addition to the tart fruit, the edible leaves and flowers of tamarind trees are also sour and are eaten fresh in salads and with chilli dips. They are used instead of the fruits to add sourness to some types of spicy-sour soups. Tamarind seeds, on the other hand, are roasted and added to other roasted ingredients to make a coffee substitute. They are also roasted, soaked and eaten whole as a folk medicine to drive out intestinal parasites.