Alex and Casey came over for a little dinner party with Ben and I so the three of us(Ben was on the phone with his mamarama so Alex, Casey, and I cooked) made Pad Thai. I found the recipe by googling “Pad Thai recipe” and came up with one from Alton Brown(you may know him from his Food Network show or from Iron Chef). The recipe can be found here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pad-thai-recipe/index.html
And I’ll copy and paste for convenience
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Yield 2 servings
Ingredients
- 1-ounce tamarind paste
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 4 ounces rice stick noodles
- 6 ounces Marinated Tofu, recipe follows
- 1 to 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 1 cup chopped scallions, divided
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 whole eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons salted cabbage
- 1 tablespoon dried shrimp
- 3 ounces bean sprouts, divided
- 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped, divided
- Freshly ground dried red chile peppers, to taste
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Directions
Place the tamarind paste in the boiling water and set aside while preparing the other ingredients.
Combine the fish sauce, palm sugar, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.
Place the rice stick noodles in a mixing bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Once the other ingredients are measured out into separate bowls, drain the water from the noodles and set them aside. Cut the tofu into 1/2-inch wide strips, similar to French fries.
Press the tamarind paste through a fine mesh strainer and add to the sauce. Stir to combine.
Place a wok over high heat. Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil. Heat until it shimmers, then add the tofu. Cook the tofu until golden brown, moving constantly, for no longer than 1 minute. Remove the tofu from the pan to a small bowl and set aside.
If necessary, add some more peanut oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. Add 2/3 of the scallions and then the garlic, cook for 10 to 15 seconds. Add the eggs to the pan; once the eggs begin to set up, about 15 to 20 seconds, stir to scramble. Add the remaining ingredients in the following order and toss after each addition: noodles, sauce, cabbage, shrimp, and 2/3 of the bean sprouts and peanuts. Toss everything until heated through, but no longer than 1 to 2 minutes total. Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with the remaining scallions, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Serve immediately with the ground chile peppers and lime wedges.
*Notes: I doubled the recipe for the four of us and it was perfect; I used sushi rice vinegar which has a little bit of sugar in it, didn’t affect the flavor that I could tell; I did not marinate the tofu but it was still delicious; I used tamarind concentrate that came in a plastic jar and was liquidy, but followed the instructions anyway since I assumed it needs to be diluted; for “palm sugar” i just used organic evaporated cane juice(aka granulated sugar); and I used some crushed red pepper flakes and a bunch of Sriracha sauce for the spice.
Enjoy!