Pad Thai
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
The classic Thai street food.
Ingredients
Dish
  • 200g dried rice noodles
  • 4 eggs (1 per person)
  • 4 shallots
  • 16 large shrimps
  • 4 cups bean sprouts
  • 4-5 spring onions (green part only, cut into 1-inch pieces)
  • 4 tablespoons roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
  • optional: one piece tofu, fried and cut into small pieces
Sauce
  • 4 teaspoons tamarind concentrate (this is the tamarind concentrate, the dark sticky paste, NOT the fresh tamarind pulp soaked in water)
  • ⅓ cup boiling water
  • 2.5-3 tablespoons fish sauce (the 35° fish sauce kind. If not using this, put 4 tablespoons in)
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon chilli paste (or pepper if chilli isn't your thing).
Instructions
  1. Cook the noodles by dunking them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse them.
  2. Make the sauce: dissolve the sugar in the water, add the tamarind concentrate, the fish sauce and the chilli/pepper. Taste: it should be balanced, with no strong taste of any of the ingredients dominating the mix. Adjust if needed.
  3. Cooking's best undertaken in two batches, though if you're impatient you can put everything together (but it'll be less effective, and a little awkward to handle). Split the ingredients in half, roughly. Beat two eggs into an omelette and set aside.
  4. Heat up a wok on high heat.
  5. First off, cook the chopped shallots until fragrant.
  6. Add the shrimps and cook until pink.
  7. Push shrimp and shallots to the side, and put the beaten eggs in, stirring them to scramble them. Let them cook until they're firm, then hack them into small pieces with your spatula (think sprinkling of scrambled eggs here. If it helps, you can take them off the heat and use a knife).
  8. Put the shrimps and shallots back in.
  9. Add half the noodles and half the sauce, and stir everything for a minute or so. Then toss in the bean sprouts, the peanuts and the spring onions (or chives), give it a whirl or two, and serve.
  10. Repeat for second batch with the remaining ingredients. Serve hot, et voilà!
Recipe by Aliette de Bodard at https://www.aliettedebodard.com/recipes/pad-thai/