Pad Thai Recipe

We’ve always wanted to make Pad Thai but we were always too intimidated to try it. Where do we start? What do we use to make the Pad Thai sauce? How long do we soak the Rice Noodles for? After numerous trial and errors, we think we got this down.

The hardest part for us was figuring out how long to soak the noodles for and how to know when they’re ready. If we under soak them, the noodles will be too hard after we attempt to cook it. If we over soak, then it’ll break apart when we’re cooking it. We got the best results by soaking the noodles in warm water for an hour to an hour and a half. You will know the noodles are ready when they turn white.

The other challenging part of making this dish is the Pad Thai sauce. My friend made Pad Thai once using store bought Pad Thai sauce (the western version) from Sobey’s and needless to say, the dish didn’t turn out great. The sauce was red! Tamarind is brown… Anyhoo, I know at the end of the day the tamarind sauce you use is dependent on what’s available at your local Asian supermarket and your personal preference but I really like the one I that I found at T&T as seen in the image below. I also bought palm sugar for the sauce at a local spice market near my work called House of Spice.

Other than these two crucial ingredients, we’re good to go! Fish sauce isn’t hard to find anyways 🙂

Ingredients

~ Makes 4 servings

• 1/2 cup tamarind sauce
• 1/2 cup palm sugar (finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• Half a package of Thai Rice Noodles
• 1/4 lbs shrimp
• 1/3 cup diced firm tofu
• Half a shallot (minced)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 egg
• Crushed peanuts
• Wedges of lime
• Bean sprouts (optional)
• Chives to garnish (optional)

1. Soak rice noodles in warm water for about an hour or until it turns white. The noodles should be very pliable but still relatively firm to the touch. Once they’ve reached that stage, drain the water to prevent over soaking.
2. Prepare the Pad Thai Sauce. Combine tamarind sauce, palm sugar, and fish sauce. If there are chunks of palm sugar, microwave the sauce to dissolve it.  Set aside until ready to use.
3. In a wok over medium heat, add a generous amount of oil to cover the bottom of the wok. Cook the shallots and garlic until aromatic. Add the shrimp and cook until they’re ready. Remove everything from the wok into a separate bowl and set aside.
4. Turn up the heat on the wok to medium high heat until it the wok starts to smoke. Add more oil and and then add the Thai rice noodles. Immediately add the Pad Thai sauce that was previously made and stir constantly to evenly distribute the sauce. Cook for a few minutes and add the shrimp, shallots, and garlic back in. Also add in the firm tofu.
5. Push the noodles to the side of the wok and crack the egg and scramble it. Once cooked, incorporate into the rest of the noodles.
6. Taste the noodle to see if it’s ready. When it is, add in optional bean sprouts and chopped chives to garnish. We didn’t add any in ours.
7. Plate with chopped peanuts and wedges of lime and serve!