pad thai

Despite take a cooking class in Thailand where I specifically learned how to make pad thai, then subsequently ordering it several dozen times while in Bangkok and usually watching them make it in front of me, pad thai has been my nemesis of sorts in the kitchen.

A few days ago I finally solved most of the issues I was having. First and foremost - the noodles. Part of the problem here is that in the class I took in Thailand the noodles were fresh - such things are near impossible to find here. Second, when I did buy the dried rice noodles, I didn't really know what I was buying since most of the brands in Asian markets have virtually no English on them. So I finally asked someone who knew what they were doing which packet to buy:

Turns out these are pretty easy to find - around here anyway - and I'm sure Whole Foods sells a much pricier version of them as well. Next was soaking the noodles. I've tried cold soaking the noodles - but as it turns out you need to do this for at least 12 hours - and since I only had 30 minutes when I tried, it didn't works so great. That day I tried boiling them to expedite the process. Bad idea! they turn to a slimy goooey mush in no time. This time however, I followed Mark Bittman's sage advice of pouring boiling water over them in a bowl and letting them sit for 15-20 minutes. This worked quite wonderfully and so I'll be using this method again in the future.

The next thing that I had managed to screw up in the past were the eggs. What you want is well cooked egg curds. Now if you try to do this on your home skillet with all the other ingredients already in the pan, you'll get a soft scrambled mess all over your noodles. bad bad bad. Instead cook the eggs separately, and in advance, as I did all the other ingredients. This allowed me to make sure the eggs, tofu, shrimp, sprouts and everything else was just right. At the last minute you can combine all the ingredients on a hot non-stick skillet, add the sauce (brown sugar, fish sauce, chilies and tamarind paste) and you're good to go. The only thing I was missing this time was the peanuts on top. A crucial ingredient for sure, but there's always next time. For a reasonably good recipe and accompanying video check here.

Not quite like Thailand, but close enough for now :)