Assuming you bought peanuts without the skin, throw them in a frying pan and give them a quick roast until they are toasty and brown. [If you bought shelled peanuts, shell them and toast them with the skin and once it cools you can rub the peanuts between your palms to remove the skin. They will not all fall out easily so it will be a bit more time consuming.]

Once they are toasted and brown, let them cool a bit. Then in a mortar and pestle crush the peanuts up finely. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can either quick pulse it in a food processor or hand chop it finely.

Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of the finely crushed peanuts as a topping

Soak the tamarind pulp in a 3-4 tablespoons of water for a few minutes and then strain out the seeds and skins. (See notes for difference between tamarind pulp and concentrated tamarind paste)

Chop up the galangal, garlic, lemongrass and shallots and put it into a food processor and blitz it to it is almost a paste. If you don’t have a food processor you can chop them by hand but chop them up finely. The finer the chop the less chunks in the sauce.

In a pan, add some oil onto medium heat and brown the lemongrass, shallot, garlic galangal mixture.

Add in the chopped birds eye chili and continue to cook it in the pan for a few minutes.

Turn down the stove to low heat and add in the coconut milk, fish sauce, tamarind water, lime juice, and water and stir until combined.

Add in the palm sugar and peanuts and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes

If you find the sauce too thick, add some more water to thin it out.