When in Doubt, Go All Out 6WS

More adventures with tamarinds before I leave this subject.  I found that when you remove one from the shell, it has a kind of netting of fibers that pull off quite easily, leaving behind edible pulp, which you can pull apart into segments, each with a seed in the middle.  Eat off the pulp, very nice, and here are a few segments in the fridge, drying a little to see if that affects them

and I then wondered hm, what about the seeds.

I figured that since they are rock hard, they need help to germinate, just as big seeds like morning glory need a nick or abrasion and soaking.  So I put a couple directly into a little container of potting soil inside a baggie to act like a greenhouse

 
and I'm soaking another couple which I nicked, for a day or so before planting them.   

 
And since there are tons of seeds in the package, I have quite a few to experiment with.  Not hoping for a tree, exactly, just interested to see if I can get an interesting houseplant out of the experiment.

I did find a good recipe in my Indian cookbook for a sauce made with tamarind and ginger, which I'll try, since it looks good for a number of uses. I bet I end up with yet another little nameless container of red sauce in the freezer.

And I found a lot of total duds by googling, honestly, there ought to be a law.  Such as the dope who writes a recipe she names Tamarind Chicken Curry, no sign of any curry spices, then I notice that curry leaves are one of the ingredients.  She doesn't know it's not spicy? that curry leaves have nada to do with the spices involved in making a curry? evidently not.  You use them anywhere you'd use a bay leaf, add wonderful depth of flavor to vegetables.

Clearly not a knowledgeable cook, or perhaps her editor is at fault, but there's her recipe out there...probably a good chicken recipe, but not what you'd expect if you were all set to eat a nice chicken curry.  I blame the English language for calling these harmless little leaves by a wrong name, really.

This is why I was asking if any blogistas use tamarind in cooking, so that I'll get something that's worth trying.  If I find something good, if the sauce I found in my Indian cookbook is good, I'll let you know about it.  

There are as many dud recipes on the internet as there are quack medicines, and that's saying something.  And there are a lot of multi ingredient multi stage recipes that, as dogonart observed, aren't worth the trouble.  I like simple, and I think flavor likes simple, too. Not that I have any strong feelings on the matter, of course.