pad thai

PAD THAI

Pad Thai is often called the signature dish of Thai cuisine. Thre are several regional variations, indeed it has been said that Thailand has not only a different curry for every day of the year, but also a different pad Thai for every cook in Thailand! This is our variation.

The recipe requires 1 cup of dry roasted, unsalted peanuts. For best preperations, coarsely break them up in a stone mortar and pestle.

Ingredients:

8 ounces chantaboon rice noodles. These should be soaked at room temperature for an hour or more depending on how soft you prefer the noodles. It may take some experimentation to determine your preference, start with warm water.

5-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped shallots

1/4 cup dried shrimps or 1/2 fresh cook shrimps

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup regular sugar (or crushed palm sugar but it doesn't make much difference)

2 tablespoons taramind concentrate mixed with 5 teaspoons water (this makes tamarind juice)

1 medium egg, beaten

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely broken up

1 cup bean sprouts

1/2 cup tofu that has been diced (1/2" cubes), marinated in dark sweet soy.

Procedure:

Heat a little cooking oil in a wok and add the garlic and shallots, and briefly stir fry until they just shows signs of changing color. At this point one option is to add chicken meat and cook a bit longer, if you prefer chicken pad Thai. Add the remaining ingredients except the egg and the bean sprouts, and stir fry until the noodles soften (about 5 minutes).As you stir the noodles, periodically throw in 1-2 tablespoon of water, and after 2-3 minutes add 1 tablespoon of rinsed salted radish (optional). Continuing to stir with one hand, slowly drizzle in the beaten egg to form a fine ribbon of cooked egg.At this point, a very tsaty but optional addition is a small handful of dried shrimps. Add the bean soprouts and cook for more than another 30 seconds. Remove from the pan to a serving platter.

Garnish:

Mix a tablespoon of lime juice with a tablespoon of tamarind jiuce and a tablespoon of fish sauce, and use this to marinade half a cup of uncooked bean sprouts, half a cup of chopped chives, and half a cup of very coarsely gruond roasted peanuts. Sprinkle this mixture on the cooked pad Thai.Cut several limes into segments and also slice up some cucumber into rounds then halve the rounds.