Thai Village Cuisine

I have a tamarind problem in my Pad thai recipe?

Most of the recipes for Pad thai calls for tamarind, but i couldn't find it before. i finally found tamarind in an Indian store. One was a block of black tamarind wrapped in plastic. Second was a small jar of tamarind concentrate which was very dark black. Third was a jar of tamarind sauce made by Knorr. This one was red. I thought this was very stange indeed, b/c I've eaten pad thai before and it usually had a reddish color to it. But the tamarind i've found here is all black except the tamarind sauce from Knorr. i bought the tamarind concentrate, and now i think i made a mistake by buying this. Did I buy the right thing?? I read somewhere tamarind is supposed to be red not this dark black sauce. how am i supposed to use this black tamarind concentrate? would it make my pad thai very black? I want to make a really good pad thai something that is more suited to my palette. I don't like the heavy thick pad thai sold in my local thai places.

Public Comments

1. Tamarind naturally turns black as it ages. Fresh tamarind pulp has a brownish brick-red color. Both taste fine. I really don't think it would make your pad thai black since you only need to use a little. The closest substitute I've found (tastewise) is unsweetened rhubarb, boiled and mashed. Sounds disgusting but there is no reason why you can't use rhubarb in a savory recipe.
2. don't worry.. the tamarind concentrate was exactly the right thing to buy. I've never seen red tamarind...it must have something else mixed with it. I use Laxmi Brand tamarind concentrate, and it really works well..It isn't really black tho..it's dark brown. But I think we're talking about the same thing. Good luck with your Pad Thai!,