Weekend Eats: Pad Thai

Pad Thai is one the most popular Thai dishes, it was first made popular as a national dish by Luang Phibunsongkhram when he was prime minister during the 1930s and 1940s, partly as an element of his campaign for Thai nationalism and centralization, and partly for a campaign to reduce rice consumption in Thailand. 

Pad Thai or Phat Thai, is a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce , tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime.

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

3-4 tbsps. oil

10 oz. Thai rice noodles (soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes)

1 cup chicken breast or thigh cut into bite sized pieces

1 cup fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup firm tofu, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups fresh bean sprouts

2 eggs

1 tbsp. sugar

3 spring onions, sliced

a handful of fresh coriander

1/3 cup peanuts, roughly chopped

lime

sauce (this makes 2 cups):

1/2 cup tamarind paste

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup palm sugar

1-3 tsp. chili sauce

Prepare the sauce:

• Melt all the ingredients together in a small pot over a low flame. 
• Taste and adjust the flavor balance until it suits you. 
• Then add the chilli powder, begin with a teaspoon or two, depending on your taste, and keep adding until it tastes the way you like it. 
• By the time you’re done flavoring, the pot should be simmering happily. Turn off the heat and let the sauce rest while you get to the other ingredients.

You can make the sauce beforehand. Don't worry if you make too much sauce, since it keeps quite well in the fridge for a long time . It really comes very handy for a quickie Pad Thai fix later.

Procedure:

1. Heat a large wok over high heat until very hot, to the point of smoky.
2. Add a splash of oil, about 3-4 tablespoons.
3. Add the chicken first, cook, stirring vigorously, until it’s half way done, about 1-2 minutes, then add the tofu, a tablespoon or two of the sauce to flavor the chicken, and a pinch of garlic. Cook for another minute until the tofu is crisp and slightly brown at the edges.
4. Add the noodle, about 2 loosely packed cups for one portion is my standard, and then a ladle (about ¼ cup) of warm sauce. Stir rigorously, keep everything moving in the wok, and cook the noodle until soft. Remember to break up the noodle and don’t let it lump together. If the sauce evaporates too quickly and your noodle isn’t quite ready, sprinkle a bit of water and keep stirring. Add a bit of oil if the noodle still stubbornly sticks together. 
5. When the noodle is ready (taste it to be sure), push it up to one side of the wok and crack an egg into the middle. Let it set for 10-15 seconds and toss everything all together.
6. Add the shrimp meat, ground peanuts, and beansprouts. Keep things moving. Add more sauce if it looks a little pale.
7. When the shrimps are done, shouldn’t take more than a minute, add a handful of coriander, spring onions and the sugar. Turn the heat off, and quickly give the wok a good stirring to mix everything together.
8. add some lime juice before serving.

The success of your Pad Thai depends on your wok. A wok is not built for heat retention or long and even cooking, unlike Western style pots and pans.A wok, on the other hand, is more like a sprinter. It heats up really fast, and loses it just as quickly. The thin iron steel material in a good wok transfers more or less all the heat from the flame directly to the content inside. This is great for the ability to control heat, you can turn the fire up and down and the heat in the pan will rise and fall just as quickly. Your utmost goal in wok-cooking is to start out hot and keep it hot! Make sure that all your ingredients are at room temperature, and that you add them in sequence and let the wok reheat back up before each addition.

That's it, now you can enjoy your Pad Thai at home anytime you want it. 

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