Pad thai
Rice noodles soaked rather than boiled, cooked two portions at a time in a sauce made first.
Shellfish, Egg, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, shellfish.
Ingredients
- 250 g dried flat rice noodles, 5 mm
- 200 g prawns, peeled
- 150 g firm tofu, in small cubes
- 3 eggs
- 100 g beansprouts
- 60 g garlic chives, in lengths
- 4 tablespoons tamarind paste
- 3 tablespoons palm sugar
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons dried shrimp
- 2 tablespoons preserved radish, chopped
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 60 g peanuts, crushed
- 2 limes, in wedges
Method
- SOAK THE NOODLES, NEVER BOIL THEM. Cold water for 1 hour, or warm water for 20 minutes, until they are pliable and still firm with a pale core. They finish in the pan. Boiled first they arrive at the wok already cooked and collapse into paste the moment the sauce goes on.
- MAKE THE SAUCE BEFORE THE PAN IS HOT. Tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce warmed together until the sugar dissolves, then taken off and tasted. It should be sour first, salty second, sweet third. Mixed in the wok instead, the sugar catches on the metal before it ever dissolves.
- TWO PORTIONS AT A TIME, maximum, however large the pan. Four portions drop the heat so far that the noodles stew in their own liquid, and nothing recovers from that.
- Fry the tofu in 1 tablespoon of oil until gold on all faces, 5 minutes, and set it aside. It will not colour once the sauce is in.
- High heat. Oil, then the dried shrimp and preserved radish, 20 seconds, until they smell toasty.
- Prawns in, 1 minute, until just turning. Push them to one side, break the eggs into the space, leave them 20 seconds to set underneath, then break them up roughly.
- Drained noodles in with half the sauce. Toss constantly, 2 minutes. If they stick, a splash of water and keep moving -- more oil at this stage makes them greasy without loosening them.
- Rest of the sauce, the tofu, then the beansprouts and chives for the last 30 seconds only, so they stay crisp.
- Off the heat, peanuts over, lime on the side. The lime is squeezed at the table and is part of the dish, not a garnish.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Thailand · All recipes