This one's for @cardanarchy who went a little tamarindo crazy during her time here in Mexico. I too am fond of this sour bean paste and finally got around to making my own tamarind puree from storebought beans.

Sold in bags like this at literally every major grocery store is the whole bean. It's a bit of a process to make this but it's worth the experience.

Start by removing the shell, it's pretty easy to crack open by hand.

Inside you'll find a slightly sticky pulp with large seeds in the center, this is what you want.

That's what a whole bag worth of shells looks like!

There's that pulp...

Put em in a pan with a little water and heat on low, adding water occasionally and cooking until it turns into a puree of sorts, with the seeds in it.

It's a process that takes a little while but when you're done you end up with this. Allow it to cool and strain the seeds out and you have tamarind puree, the base of all sorts of tamarind flavored recipes.