How to Make Tamarind Sauce

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Tamarind sauce ingredients

A Classic Sweet and Slightly Sour Thai Sauce

Serves N.A. Cooks in 10 minutes Difficulty Easy

Preparing Tamarind sauce from scratch is a lengthy, overnight process. This is my quick and easy short cut to create a simple, tasty sauce. Sweet and slightly sour.

I use this sauce quite a lot in my Khao Lak Thai cooking class, it’s one of the key ingredients in classic Thai cuisine such as Pad Thai or Fried Shrimp in Tamarind Sauce. You can also use it to give you western favourites a nice Thai taste. One of my chef friends uses it to glaze spare ribs and fish.

Most the ingredients for my Tamarind Sauce should be readily available from most decent supermarkets though you may need to source one of two items from an Asian speciality shop. You will need:

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp tamarind concentrate or paste
  • 1 tbsp chilli sauce
  • 2 tbsp palm sugar
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp pork stock
Gently melt palm sugar
Start by gently melting palm sugar.

Method

  1. Gently melt the palm sugar in a sauce pan.
  2. Add the tamarind concentrate and stir gently.
  3. Add the chilli sauce, stir until mixed together.
  4. Add the soy sauce, stock and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce is thick and has a nice shine to it.
Finished tamarind sauce
The finished sauce has a lovely deep reddish brown shine.

To Store

1. Sterilise a kilner jar. To do this, fill the jar with hot soapy water, rinse well and place in a pre-heat oven at 140°C until dry. Remember to remove the rubber seals.

2. Pour in the sauce, close the jar and store in the fridge. Will stay fresh for at least one month.

This is a really handy sauce to have at hand to jazz up any meal. Hope you find some creative uses for my Tamarind Sauce. Enjoy, by Apple 🍎 Riverside Thai Cooking in Khao Lak.