Khap koon Kha! Thank you very much! I took them to my desk and puzzled over what they were and what I should do with them. My co-teacher Chrystal told me that they were tamarinds, the fruit that is used to flavor pad-thai. Clearly this was a sign that I should finally try my hand at cooking some Thai food. First step: break the tamarind pods open, pull out the fruit, remove the seeds and tough pulp, and force the rest through a strainer:
I clearly was unable to do this without making a mess. But eventually, the mess payed off and I had a plate of tamarind paste:
Eww. Not very appetizing, right? But after that, it was simple. Stir-fry the paste with rice sticks, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and shallot, veggies, and egg. Top with crushed peanuts. Voila!
It turned out a bit mushy. I think I need to do the stir-frying a lot faster to end up with perfect pad-thai. Also, broccoli and carrots are not authentic pad-thai vegetables. But mai pben rai. I was pretty happy with my first pad-thai attempt. In the future, I think I will just buy the tamarind paste and forgo the messy stage. But given a random gift of tamarinds, it's worth the effort. Mmmm.
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