Pad Thai

I love Pad Thai.  It's what I order every time I go to a Thai restaurant.  Pad Thai reminds me of lunches with my favorite, coolest boss, John, who loves Thai food.   I am often tempted to try and recreate restaurant dishes that I love, but I had always perceived Pad Thai to be over my head.  I searched for recipes on-line and found some that contained peanut butter, which sounded a little shady.   But I found this recipe on-line (Savory Sweet Life)  and decided to give it a try. I was surprised that it does not contain any peanut sauce, but instead uses a combination of tamarind (which is a fruit juice concentrate),  fish sauce (which is very salty) and sugar which, of course, I love!  I found these ingredients at Global Market in Kirkwood, MO.  The sauce can be cooked in advance and stored in the refrigerator.  One batch of sauce as directed in this recipe is good for at least two batches of Pad Thai. 

The nice part about this recipe is that all the ingredient prep can be done ahead of time.  So I recommend cooking all the ingredients in advance and taking a break before assembling.  

I find this dish to be flavorful, yet light - really nice for summertime.  So here is the recipe.  I hope you like it! 

 Pad Thai

Inspired by Savory Sweet Life

Serves  2-4 as a main dish

1/3 cup fish sauce

½ cup sugar

½ cup tamarind juice concentrate

1 tsp hot sauce

4 ounces dried rice noodles (very thin - rice straws work well)

6 TBL vegetable oil divided

1 cup onion chopped

1 cup shredded carrots

2 eggs

1-2 cups chopped chicken, pork or shrimp

1 cup bean sprouts

1/4  - ½ cup cilantro - chopped

1 cup chopped peanuts – (I like honey roasted)

Prepare sauce:

In a sauce pan, dissolve sugar in the fish oil .

Add tamarind juice and cook for 1 minute.  Season with hot sauce and possibly additional sugar.

Set aside or store in a jar in refrigerator.  Can be made ahead of time and will be enough for several batches. 

 Prepare Ingredients:

In a medium pan, cook rice noodles as directed.  Rinse in cold water and dry on a paper towel.  Set aside.

In a large skillet heat oil and saute onion and carrots until tender.  Set aside.

Scramble eggs and set aside.

Saute meat or shrimp until cooked through.  Set aside.

Assembly:

Add more oil to skillet , heat and stir fry noodles for 1 minute. 

Add  cooked onion/carrot mixture and toss to blend. 

Add cooked meat or shrimp and egg  and toss to blend.

Add 4-6 TBL of Thai sauce (or enough so noodles are well coated).  Toss mixture in sauce until well coated.

Toss in bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts just before serving.