Pad Thai - Attempt #1

As some of you might know, I have a pretty unhealthy obsession with Thai food. It's definitely my favorite ethnicity of food and I could probably eat it every night of the week. While I was pregnant, my friend Sang (who was also pregnant at the time) and I had Thai for lunch at least once a week... perhaps that had something to do with the 40 lbs I gained...

I've been casually perusing Thai recipes on the internet for a few months now, but for some reason it's always seemed too intimidating to attempt. A few weeks ago my friend Keeney gave me a beautiful Le Creuset wok and I officially had no excuse to not experiment with my favorite Thai classic: Chicken Pad Thai. (for those of you unfamiliar, pad Thai is a traditional rice noodle stir-fry commonly served in the markets and street fairs of Thailand.)

I did a little bit of research and decided on this recipe. I swung by Wegmans on the way home and picked up a few things, but was still missing the main Thai ingredients. Thank God for the internet! Temple of Thai has tons of recipes and info about Thai cuisine, and they sell traditional Thai ingredients as well. I was able to order the tamarind, palm sugar, crushed Thai chilies, rice noodles, and fish sauce.

This is a fast moving meal, so it definitely helps to have all the ingredients prepped (like they do in the food network shows) so everything is ready to add.

 From top, clockwise: rice noodles, crushed peanuts, fish sauce, tamarind, egg, palm sugar, minced shallot, crushed red chilies, minced garlic, and thinly sliced chicken in the middle.

The trickiest part of the whole recipe is definitely getting the noodles right. You don't cook them like Italian pasta - you soak them in warm water until pliable then add to the stir-fry. Getting them to the right texture is all trial-and-error.

This whole recipe from the first thing you drop into the wok (shallot and garlic) to the last (crushed chilies) takes less than ten minutes. It's definitely a quick recipe that I will be adding to my regular rotation. Although it wasn't the best Pad Thai I've ever had, it was definitely on the right track. I think next time I'll try a more Americanized recipe that might be a little more similar to what you might get in a restaurant here. Here's my finished product!

Lessons learned for next time -

1 - definitely could use the "optional" lime wedge
2 - soak the noodles a little longer, they could have been a tad softer
3 - experiment with a new variation of the traditional recipe!