Rat na

Charred wide noodles under a separate thickened gravy, the two never cooked together.

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

Ingredients

the noodles

• 600 g fresh wide rice noodles
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons oil

the gravy

• 300 g pork, in thin slices
• 250 g gai lan, in lengths
• 600 ml pork stock
• 2 tablespoons fermented soybean paste
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon palm sugar
• 3 tablespoons tapioca flour
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. THE NOODLES AND THE GRAVY NEVER MEET IN THE PAN. Noodles charred dry with dark soy in one pan, gravy built in another, and the gravy poured over at the plate. The phat si-io on this site is the same noodle tossed WITH its sauce; this is the version where it is poured over, and cooking them together gives you neither.
2. Char the noodles exactly as for phat si-io: very hot pan, film of oil, noodles in and left 45 seconds to blister, dark soy tossed through, out. Keep them warm on the plates.
3. TAPIOCA FLOUR FOR THE GRAVY, not cornflour. It sets glossy and slightly stretchy and holds that texture as it cools; cornflour goes cloudy and breaks down into water on the plate within minutes.
4. Slake it in cold stock before it goes anywhere near heat.
5. Fry the garlic in oil, 20 seconds, then the pork, 2 minutes.
6. Soybean paste in, pressed against the pan 1 minute.
7. Stock, oyster sauce, soy and sugar in. Bring to a simmer.
8. Gai lan stems in, 2 minutes; leaves in, 1 minute. They should stay bright.
9. Slaked tapioca flour in a thin stream, stirring, until it thickens to a gravy that coats the back of a spoon heavily. 1 minute more to cook the starch out.
10. Pour over the noodles at the plate. Serve with chilli vinegar, which is not optional -- the gravy is rich and flat without it.

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