Pad Thai is a Bangkok street food favorite. Its appeal is due to it being light and fresh tasting, simple and subtle flavoring with a hint of complex and fiery flavor topped with lemon zest and the crunch of peanuts. A perfect stir fry. Ingredients
8 ounces Chantaboon rice noodles soaked at room temperature for an hour.
2 cloves garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
1/4 cup dried shrimp
2 tbsp. salted radish, chopped
1/8 or 1 tbsp. cup fish sauce
1/4 cup palm sugar
1 teaspoons tamarind concentrate mixed with 5 teaspoons water
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup firm tofu cubed
Method
Use a wok. Heat it up on high heat and pour oil in the wok. Fry the peanuts until toasted and remove them from the wok.
Add shallot, garlic and tofu and stir them until they start to brown.
The noodles should be flexible but not expanded at this point. Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Stir quickly to keep things from sticking.
Add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, chili pepper, shrimp and preserved turnip/radish. Stir. The heat should remain high. If your wok is not hot enough, you will see a lot of juice in the wok at this point. Turn up the heat, if it is the case. Make room for the egg by pushing all noodles to the side of the wok. pour the egg onto the wok and scramble it until it is almost all cooked. Fold the egg and tofu into the noodles.
The noodles should be soft and tangled.
Add the bean sprouts and cook for no 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 juice 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 ground 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. Put the lime segments and cuke segments around the serving platter.
