Pad Thai
This is my go-to dish every time I order Thai takeaway. I love Thai food as you don’t get that sluggish heavy feeling that you get after inhaling a Chinese take out. It is just a lot more fresh and flavoursome, in my opinion. Any opportunity I get I try to recreate my favourite takeaways at home so that I can eat them anytime I want and I know exactly what has gone into it.
The trick to Asian cooking is preparation. The meals tend to come together very quickly, but since they are best served fresh you can’t be chopping the vegetables as you chicken is already on the pan. Organisation is key. Once all your ingredients are chopped and weighed out it comes together in minutes.
Tamarind sauce is the key to a good Pad Thai. It is a sweet sticky sauce with quite a unique flavour. While no alternative is going to compare with this sauce, I understand that it may be hard to get so you could substitute in other sticky sweet sauces such as sweet chilli or hoisin sauce. I’ve even seen some recipes online mixing 1 tbsp of ketchup and 1 tbsp white vinegar with the other ingredients listed below for the sauce, where tamarind is not available. While I have not tried these alternatives, I am sure they would be pretty tasty too.
Ingredients (serves 5)
400g of dry rice noodles
1 1/2 tbsp of tamarind paste (purchased mine in Asian shop, see notes above for alternative options if you can’t find this)
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp peanut rayu (optional, purchased in the Asian shop)
500g of vegetables of choice finely sliced. (I used the pre-chopped stir-fry vegetable mix that included shredded carrots, broccoli, white cabbage, beansprouts & onion)
2 tbsp groundnut / peanut oil
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 chicken breasts (finely sliced)
about 10 raw jumbo prawns
2 eggs (beaten)
handful of dry roasted peanuts (chopped)
1 lime (cut into wedges)
Chilli flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)
2 Spring onion (thinly sliced)
Method
Mix tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, peanut rayu (if using) & oyster sauce together.
Heat up your oil in a skillet or wok.
Place noodles in a large pot and soak in boiling water for 5-7 minutes. Then drain in a colander under cold water. Don’t leave them sitting around for more than 10 mins or they will start to stick together .
While noodles are soaking, sauté your sliced vegetables and garlic until slightly softened.
Add thinly sliced chicken and cook on high heat until almost cooked through.
Push all veg / chicken to one side and add your beaten egg to the pan and scramble until dry.
By now your noodles should be strained under cold water and left to one side. You can add these noodles to the chicken/veg/egg mix in the pan and add your sauce, raw prawns and half of the crushed peanuts.
Toss together until the noodles are heated through and the prawns are nice and pink (about 4-6 minutes depending on the size of the prawns).
I like to serve this dish directly from the pan. Once the prawns are cooked, sprinkle the remaining peanuts on top along with the sliced spring onion and chilli flakes. I like to squeeze over a good bit of lime juice, or else cut the lime into segments and let each person add their own lime.
579 calories per portion (serving size based on 5 people)
