After 3 weeks in China everyone's been craving their favourite, non-Chinese, foods and been literally begging for them. I caved in to the craving for Pad Thai today and thought I'd share the recipe. It does take a while to make (1 hour from start to finish) but we find it delicious. Full of protein which is perfect for our vegetarian table. Although I do put some fish sauce into this recipe but that's because I've never been able to figure out what the original recipe meant by "Asian bean sauce". Actually if anyone knows what this is please be so kind as to help me find it.
After this description you'll find a pdf with the recipe in black and white. This is the best thing to use when you are actually cooking the Pad Thai. I'm never very good with a recipe which has pictures in the middle :(
This recipe serves 4 - 6 hungry adults (depending on the extent of hunger!) and is made with a whole pack of rice noodles. It makes things much easier to use a whole pack because halving a pack of rice noodles is a nightmare.
Ingredients:
14 oz Rice noodles (with the width of linguine)
12 oz Firm tofu (1 pack in the USA or one block in Germany)
2 tbsp Minced garlic
4 Eggs, lightly beaten
200 ml Water
1/2 A vegetable cube
4 tbsp Water
3.5 tbsp Fish sauce (or Asian bean sauce)
3.5 tbsp Sugar
7 tsp Soya sauce
1/2 tsp Ground red chili pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup Non-sweetened peanut butter (optional)
3 cups Bean sprouts
6 Green onions
1 Lemon or Lime
Approx. 5 tbsp oil
Method:
First take your pack of rice noodles and dump the noodles into a bowl of very hot, but not boiling water. Boiling water makes the noodles all soggy. I just use hot water from the tap but our hot water is usually too hot to put your hands under.
Next comes the tofu. How much you actually use will depend on your taste. Sometimes I use one block, sometimes two. It's not a very exact science. When I use two my wok tends to overflow a bit!
Next the tofu needs to cut and then pan fried. Now if you have extra time (ha, ha, who are we kidding!) you can elevate one side of your chopping board slightly and then put a weight on the block of tofu to remove any extra water. Your tofu will fry better and be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Cut your tofu into cubes (or any other bite sized shape that you like).
Put about 3 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan, heat it up over medium high heat and fry the tofu. Make sure you have a pan that doesn't stick. It doesn't have to be a non-stick pan, actually it's better if it's not. The tofu needs to be occasionally turned.
While the tofu is doing it's thing take your eggs and beat them lightly (or not so lightly if you need to relieve some stress). Peel your garlic and pulverize it.
Now mix the garlic and the egg together.
By the time you've done this your tofu is probably looking like this:
and it's time to remove it from the stove. I just flip it into a bowl add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pan and then throw the egg right in there. All you need to do is prepare scrambled eggs and in your hot pan this should take no time at all.
Now is a good time to drain your noodles and fill up the bowl with some new hot water.
Once you've done this it's time for the sauce. Now as you can see below I've put all the ingredients for the sauce into separate bowls but this is purely for the photograph. I never do this when I am not photographing my food (which really saves time). All you need is a one pint/ 2 cup/ 500 ml measuring jug and you can just pour everything into it.
So for the sauce mix together the water, veggie cube, tamarind paste, water, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, chili pepper and peanuts.
So here's the deal. The water is actually supposed to be vegetable stock, so if you have that great. Go ahead and use it. I never have veggie stock around because 1. I can't be bothered making it and 2. if I buy it I end up using 200 ml and having to trash the rest because it rots in my fridge. Veggie cubes work fine for me.
The tamarind paste I buy in a jar and I have to add the extra water because if there is not enough sauce the noodles tend to be too dry. Here is a picture of the type of paste I buy. It's pretty thick which is why I dilute it with water. I'll try and
post how to make tamarind liquid from scratch for my wonderful Sri Lankan friends who have access to the most delicious tamarind ever. But if you use tamarind liquid you should use 7 tablespoons of it and no extra water.
Again, the fish sauce should be Asian bean sauce and I'd love to find it but have been unsuccessful in the USA, Germany and Sri Lanka (well the last is only to be expected, no?)
I never put chili in my Pad Thai and I really cannot be bothered to grind my own peanuts thus the peanut butter. The ingredients of your peanut butter should be "peanuts" and "salt" and nothing else. If you have sugar in there you might compensate by reducing the amount of sugar that you add into the sauce. If you have no access to peanut butter you probably can take roasted peanuts and grind them up (this might actually taste better!). When I don't have peanut butter, or I don't have enough, I still go ahead and make the noodles. It's just a matter of taste.
Now mix up your sauce and don't worry too much about the bits you can mix them in better once the sauce is hot in the pan.
Next get those noodles out of the water and drain them. Put a largish wok on the cooker add in a couple of tablespoons of oil and heat up the oil on medium high. A non-stick wok is a good idea! Add the noodles to the pan and fry them until they become transparent. Something like this:
Then add the sauce and watch it sizzle! Mix it all up nicely and let it cook. In the mean time wash and chop your green onions. Thinly slice the white parts and chop the green parts to about 1 inch in length.
Now add the tofu and the egg to the noodles and mix it all up. While the egg and tofu are absorbing all that wonderful sauce wash your bean sprouts and cut up some lime (or lemon).
Add 2 cups of the bean sprouts and all the green onion into the wok and mix it up again and after a few minutes you should have something that looks like this:
Yummy, yummy Pad Thai.
To serve, put the rest of the bean sprouts in a bowl together with the lime slices and have your gourmets sprinkle fresh sprouts over their noodles, add a squeeze of lime, mix and enjoy.
