Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serving: 2 persons
*Vegetarian adaptations available*
Ingredients for Pad Thai: 3.5 oz of rice noodles, 2 eggs, 1 oz of ground pork; 4 pieces of fresh shrimp (or more!), 1 tbsp of dried shrimp, 3.5 oz of bean sprouts, 1/2 cup of tofu (or 1 cup for vegetarian and omit other meat sources); 1 tbsp of minced garlic, 2 tbsp of pickled white radish, 1/3 cup of chicken broth (or vegetable broth), 1/3 cup of Pad Thai sauce (recipe later in post), 2 tbsp of cooking oil, 1/4 tsp of chili powder, 1/4 cup of chives (chopped).
Garnish and Condiments (Optional): 2 leaves of butter or iceburg lettuce, extra bean sprouts, lime wedges, roasted peanuts, sugar, and fish salt.
Pad Thai sauce: 3/4 cup of palm sugar (or cane/brown sugar), 1/2 cup tamarind juice, 1/4 cup of water, 2 tbsp of fish sauce (or soy sauce), 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of chili powder, 1/3 cup shallots chopped, 1 tsp of ground pepper. Mix all in a pot on medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then ready to serve in Pad Thai.
Procedure: Make Pad Thai sauce first ^^^^
Then, put 2 tbsp of cooking oil into a wok or frying pan on low heat. When hot, fry fresh shrimp until cooked (beware of overcooking and shrinking the shrimp). Remove from wok.
Add oil again and saute the garlic until it is fragrant. Add the pork, picked sweet white radish, tofu, dried shrimp and chili powder.
Add the Pad Thai sauce, rice noodles, and chicken broth; turn to medium heat. Stir thoroughly until tender then move all the content to one side of the wok/pan.
Put 1 tbsp of oil into the wok, add eggs and scramble; mix together with rest of Pad Thai when done; Add sprouts and chives, mix well and turn off heat.
Serve with fresh vegetables/garnish on plate: lay a leaf of lettuce and the extra bean sprouts, then spoon the Pad Thai on the plate. You can also add roasted peanuts, chili powder, sugar, a wedge of lime, and fish sauce to your taste preference.
Pad Thai can be a very sweet dish, in more recent years in Thailand sugar has been added in copious amounts to the diet, but it is not necessary for your own taste preference. I don’t like sweet Pad Thai. Also, Thailand consumes more pork than chicken in its lifestyle, and rarely any beef, so if you think chicken sounds better than pork in this recipe, especially with the shrimp (ha ha), then feel free to make your own adaptations. This is an authentic Thai recipe though! Hope you enjoy!
USAC, Take Me Away to Thailand! 