Recipe: Pad Thai

October 23, 2011 General Interest

The Very-Thai Pad Thai

This post was written by Utchima Sriprachya-anunt, a dietetic intern at the Tufts Medical Center, Boston. You can follow her blog (which unfortunately, is in Thai) at utchimama.wordpress.com.

Every time I tell people I come from Thailand, the next thing that always follows is “Ooh I love Pad Thai. Can you make Pad Thai for me?” As a Thai and a girl who dreams of being a chef, I don’t want to make a “normal” Pad Thai, but a very heavenly authentic one. So I called my auntie, who happens to be the Julia Child of the family, and asked her for the secret Pad Thai recipe! I guarantee you that your tastbuds will be dancing with this Pad Thai recipe. It’s also fast and easy to make as well. The sauce is seasoned primarily with shallots, garlic, chilli, and tamarind juice (which you can buy at a local Asian market)–all the good stuff! No need to rely on the canned or jarred version of the sauce at all! You can find all the ingredients at the Asian grocery store. Feel free to substitute tofu (or other kind of meat) for shrimp, or even add any vegetables that you like to make your dietitian proud. 🙂

The Very-Thai Pad Thai
Source: Utchi’s auntie

Sauce:
Shallot 3-4 bulbs
Garlic 3-4 cloves
Dried chilli 1-3 (go for 3 if you feel adventurous)
Tamarind juice 4 Tbsp
Palm sugar 3 Tbsp (or brown sugar if you can’t find)
Fish sauce (adjusted to taste)–> can replaced with
light soy sauce for vegetarian/vegan

Noodles:
Rice noodles (soak in water for about 20 minutes) 1 package
Bean sprouts 2 cups
Chives 1/2 cup
Either Shrimp, Chicken or Tofu
2 Eggs

Directions
1) Blend garlic, shallot, and dried chilli in the blender.

2) Mix together fish sauce (or light soy), tamarind juice, and palm sugar in a small bowl until homogenous.

3) Heat oil in the wok pan over medium heat. Add garlic/shallot mixture and stir fried until fragrant (about 3 minutes). Lower the heat to simmer and add the fish sauce mixture. Stir till well combined.

4) Add shrimp/chicken to the sauce mixture. Cook for 3 minutes or until shrimp/chicken started to change color. Make some room in the middle of the pan and add eggs. Keep stirring and cooking the eggs are until almost done.

5) Add noodle and stir until everything is all coated with the sauce. Add bean sprouts and chives. (If used tofu, add tofu in this step so that the tofu won’t break into small pieces when you cook).

6) Crank up the heat to high then stir fry everything until mixed well.

7) Serve with a squeeze of lime juice and ground peanuts.

Serves 4-6.

And now you can make a very delicious authentic Pad Thai, without having to be Thai:)