Phat si-io

Wide fresh noodles charred in a dry hot pan before any sauce touches them.

Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains oyster sauce, pork.

Ingredients

• 600 g fresh wide rice noodles
• 300 g pork loin, in thin slices
• 200 g gai lan, stems and leaves separated
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon white pepper

Method

1. CHAR THE NOODLES DRY BEFORE ANY SAUCE TOUCHES THEM. The pan as hot as it goes, a film of oil, noodles in and then LEFT ALONE for 45 seconds until they blister and catch in spots. That smoky scorch is the entire difference between this and the pad thai on this site, and sauce added first steams them so it can never happen.
2. Fresh wide noodles, and separate the sheets by hand before they go near heat. Cold ones tear -- 20 seconds in the microwave or a minute in warm water makes them pliable.
3. If only dried noodles are available, soak rather than boil them, and accept that they will not char the same way.
4. TWO PORTIONS AT A TIME AT MOST. This dish lives on pan temperature and four portions kill it.
5. Pork in the hot oil, 1 minute, then pushed to the side. Garlic in for 10 seconds.
6. Eggs broken into the space, left 20 seconds to set, then broken up roughly.
7. Noodles in and charred as above. Resist stirring.
8. Gai lan stems in, 1 minute, then the leaves.
9. Sauces and sugar in down the hot side of the pan, not over the noodles -- they caramelise on the metal for a second before they coat anything.
10. Toss four or five times only and get it out. White pepper over it. Overworked, the noodles break into pieces and it turns to paste.

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