I had this happen with one brand on another recipe, too. What worked for me was to change the soaking water halfway through. Not sure why that did the trick — I guess maybe it’s like washing some starch off of rice? Worth a try at least.

Even fresh tamarind- the thai version (which our Indian store stocks btw) is a bit milder and sweeter than the desi version. And definitely Indian tamarind paste is too overpowering for this balanced dish.

Hi Pailin,

I was wondering if you could suggest a substitute for garlic chives?

Thanks 😉

Sorry, I see that you've responded to similar comments before. I'm assuming the problem exists with only the paste bought off-the-rack (maybe in US?), so I'll continue to use the homemade one as we do. I've not had it overpower the dish before.

I'm Aashimi and I'm from India. I'm curious why you say not to use the Indian tamarind products. What's the difference? I looked at your post on making it from scratch, and that's what we do for dishes using tamarind too.

We don't have Asian markets in India (yet), and I always look for substitutes which can be found here. I always thought that I could use the tamarind paste the same way we do.

Hmm, might be an issue with the rice noodles, what kind of rice noodles are you using? Is it from Thailand? Do ingredients only say rice flour? Or does it have other starched mixed in?

Sorry - I meant sticking together! I soak them for an hour as instructed before cooking them, but even when I add them right at the end and barely cook them at all, they still stick together and turn into one big rice goop.
For anyone else having this problem - I've been spraying them with cooking spray after draining them and before cooking, and that's been helping.

Sticking to the pan? You need a well seasoned cast iron, carbon steel, or nonstick. YOu can use stainless steel but you need to heat the pan until very hot (water sprinkled on should bead up into balls) before adding oil and other things.

Wondering if you have thoughts on how to stop the noodles from sticking. I tried rinsing them off after soaking them, and tossing them with lots of oil, but they keep ending up a big glooppy mess...

Did you use Indian tamarind paste by any chance? It's much stronger and darker than Thai tamarind. I specified in the recipe note and in the ingredient notes section to use tamarind from Thailand because this is a common confusion.

It's not so much the variety, but the Indian tamarind paste is much more concentrated than THai ones.