Pad Thai

Today was Asian noodle day at school so I made sure to team up with the Japanese girl. My.... our.... noodles were, well, perfect (duh.) I think it's due to our collective Asian heritage.

Pad Thai.

Ingredients:
Thai rice stick noodles (Bonh Pho)
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup tamarind paste, diluted in water
1/4 cup thai fish sauce
1 chicken breast cut into small strips
Tofu..... I think tofu is gross and would personally leave it out, but go ahead.....
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 thai chili pepper, minced (serrano will work fine if you cannot find thai)
1/2 cup bean sprouts
2 Tbsp palm sugar
Juice of 1-2 limes
Cilantro, chopped
Thai basil, chopped
1/4 cup toasted peanuts

**LA has plenty of great Asian markets. I suggest you find one. If you start substituting palm sugar for brown sugar and fish sauce for soy sauce, you will end up with a feeling of defeat.... not pad thai. 


Plus, you can stock up on hello kitty chopsticks and other things that every kitchen NEEDS..... 

Method:
Soak rice stick noodles in warm water until soft according to package directions.

Have everything chopped, prepped, and ready to go before you start cooking. This dish cooks very quickly.

Heat peanut oil in a medium skillet until it is VERY hot. Sauté tofu until golden brown and set aside.
Make sure that there is nothing left over in the pan from the tofu. Add a little peanut oil and again, get the pan VERY hot. Pour in beaten egg, remove the pan from the heat, and swirl the egg around the pan to get a thin omelet. Once cooked through, turn the pan upside down to get the egg out. Set aside.
Add oil and heat pan again, yes, again...... then sauté chicken. When the chicken is about 90% cooked, add the garlic and cook until fragrant- about 20 seconds. Turn heat down to medium/low. Add tamarind paste. Cook for about 1 minute and then add the fish sauce. Cook for 1 minute and add lime juice and chili pepper. Add bean sprouts and palm sugar. Add the softened noodles and toss with the sauce to coat.

To plate:
Chop cooked egg and toasted peanuts.
Place pad thai noodles on a warm plate and garnish with cooked tofu, chopped egg, toasted peanuts, chopped cilantro, chopped basil, green onion, and lime wedges.

Delete the Thai food number from your phone and enjoy. Or if this didn't go so well, call the number, place order, and also enjoy.

A confession:
As happy as I am to be able to make my own pad thai.... the likeliness of me running to the Asian market and spending an hour shopping and prepping ingredients when I am hungover and in need of Thai food for mere survival...... absolutely not. In this instance, note the final instruction above.

More noodles.....

and more noodles......

and dumplings.....

the end.