Pad Thai Cooking

I really enjoy cooking. The problem is when you get home at 5:45PM your lack of motivation does not help. I decided that I was going to crack open my Thai cookbook and make some good food this week. First dish- Pad Thai

When I was in Thailand we took a cooking class one night. The school was called the Thai Orchid Cooking School. As part of the class we all got a little cook book to take home with us.

Pad Thai is really easy to make. The hardest part is just finding all of the ingredients needed. I have had luck at Wal-Mart, but there is also a Chinese grocery store in the city that has helped me out a few times as well.

I will post the full receipe below, but here is a quick play by play of what you need to do. Before you begin you must soak the rice noodles over night.  This allows them to soften and be ready to go the next day.

I like to lay out all of my ingredients before I begin. This dish does not take a long time to make so it makes things easier to have everything close by. For this you will need sugar, vegetable oil, chili's or chili spice, chives, peanuts, bean sprouts, fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, eggs, vegetable or chicken stock and some chicken.

In a wok combine the chicken, rice noodles, vegetable oil, chili's, your sause and stock. Cook on a low to medium tempture as you do not want the noodles to stick together.

While this is cooking get your peanutes, bean sprouts and chives ready. When all of the stock has evaporated combine into the noodle mixture and let the sprouts get warm.

True Thailand Pad Thai has eggs in it although most North American places has removed them. This is optional, but I love it with. Push all your ingredients to one side of the wok. On the other side crack 2 beaten eggs and let them cook. No not mix with the pasta misture.

One the egg is cooked serve! Try to get the egg on top of your noodle mixture. I placed it on the side so you can see what the Pad Thai actually looks like. You can make it your own serving with Tofu, or in this case I chose some chicken.

Ingredients:

200g Rice Noodles

3.5 tablespoons cooking oil

1 tablespoon dried shrimps (optional)

40g of tofu or chicken

2 eggs

1 cup stock or water

20g chives

100g bean sprouts

2 tablespoons peanuts

1 teaspoon reserved radish (optional)

20g shallot (optional)

Sauce:

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoon tamarind paste (or can use viniger)

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon chilies or chili powder

Instructions:

- Heat cooking coil int he wok over low heat, add meat/tofu and shallots fri until turned golden brown

- Put preserved radish and dried shripm in and fry for a few seconds

- Add rice noodles and water/stock. Add sauce. Fry until noodles are wilted and ingredients mixed well

- Add chives, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Fry quickly until sprouts are warm. 

- Make room for egg by pushing all noodles to the side of walk

- Add 1/2 teaspoon cooking oil into the wok, and add beatten eggs to wok and let cook.

- Serve!