Hi all, I am new here!

I am a European, but I absolutely love both eating and cooking Asian and Indian food.

Anyway, I digress ... I bought some Massaman Curry paste from my local Asian supermarket. The recipe called for tamarind paste, but all they had in the supermarket were big blocks of tamarind fruits (with seeds) squished together into a big square block.

I bought the tamarind block and went ahead and made the curry with it anyway ... it was absolutely delicious - literally indistingushable from something I would expect to be served in a good asian restaurant - so I was pleased with the result!

The only problem was that I had to keep picking the tamarind seeds out of the dish as I ate it!

Now I really like the flavour of the tamarind from the block, but how can I turn it into a paste?

I am thinking of boiling the whole block in some water until the tamarind flesh falls away from the seeds, then I can pick the seeds out, then continue to boil the mixture until it reduces to a paste that I can cool, put in a tub, and freeze.

But will that impair the flavour of the tamarind? What do you guys think?