In keeping with my Southeast Asian theme over the last week (see Pho Mi 99), I decided to make an Authentic Pad Thai recipe that I had gotten a loooong time ago. Ive always loved to eat pad thai, but whenever I made it just got one of those shitty jar Pad Thai sauce, which really just doesn't do the trick. So I decided, why not.. There aren't really many ingredients in here that are too hard to find, and in fact, you probably have or are capable of getting the majority of them within a couple of blocks radius of wherever you are. It ended up being capable of easily filling three people up and having left overs for two lunches the day after. Anyways, please try this because, in my opinion, it was the closest thing to Thailand I'm ever gonna get..
Ingredients
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon garlic - chopped
1 tablespoon dried shrimp (can use fresh, although you may want to use more than 1 tbsp if fresh)
1 cup tofu/chicken
3/4 cup full sized shrimp or prawns
6 tablespoons chicken stock or 1.5 cans of chicken broth
2 eggs - beaten
3 tablespoons roasted peanuts (or more if you like lots)
1/4 cup chives
1 cup bean sprouts
1 lime - cut into wedges
Any other fresh vegetables you want to add
Sauce
3 tablespoons sugar (raw sugar or brown sugar) 3 tablespoons fish sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce 2 tablespoons tamarind juice (find at any Chinese food store)Steps
1. Put the oil in a wok (or large frying pan) and fry the garlic, dried shrimp and tofu/chicken until the garlic turns golden brown (and chicken is cooked if you use it).
2.Let the rice noodles sock in water for about 5-10 minutes
3.Add noodles to the wok. Keep stirring over high heat while adding the chicken stock a bit at a time until the noodles are soft (if you run out of chicken stock and the noodles are not yet soft enough, add water).
4. Turn the heat down and add the sauce. Stir well to combine.
6. Add the vegetables (bean sprouts, chives) and the peanuts.
7. Stirfry to combine, then put on a plate.
8. Garnish with lime wedges and more peanuts.
