Easy Pad Thai

Pad Thai is Thai street style fried thin rice sticks – it is now quite well known internationally and I don’t think it needs any introduction. I cook Pad Thai from time to time at home. My way is easy and the ingredients are not that difficult to find.

For 2, you will need:

100 grams Rice Sticks (the thin ones but not as thin as vermicelli), soaked in warm water until soft
250 grams pork or skinless chicken, cut into thin strips
100 grams prawn meat
½ cup chopped red onion or shallots
½ - 1 teaspoon red hot chilli flakes
25 grams shaved palm sugar
1 tablespoon tamarind juice or rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce (substitute with soy sauce if you don’t have fish sauce)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely ground – use toasted pine nuts if you are allergic to nuts
2 cups bean sprouts
2 spring onions (if you can find garlic chives, use garlic chives) cut into 5 cm long, halve the white bits
Oil for frying

2 wedges of lemon or lime, more chilli flakes, more bean sprouts, more ground peanuts, soy sauce and white sugar as garnish on the side

Add oil to a deep pan or a wok and heat over medium high – add onion or shallot and fry until soft. Add chili flakes, fry quickly and take care not to burn, then add palm sugar, tamarind juice or rice vinegar and fry a bit further about 2 minutes. Add soy sauce and fish sauce. Spoon half of the sauce into a bowl and set aside. Add chicken or pork, fry until cooked through then add prawns. Remove cooked meat from the wok and set aside.

Add a little bit more oil in the wok – add rice sticks and about half of the reserved sauce. Fry until rice sticks are soft – I myself like my rice sticks well cooked and soft so I always add a bit of water at this point but not too much. Push the rice sticks to one side and add eggs to the wok on the other side – when the eggs are half cooked – stir the rice sticks into the eggs. Add meat and the remaining sauce – turn to combine. Add peanuts, bean sprouts and spring onions. Fry quickly and remove from heat.

Divide onto two plates – it should be ample for second serving. Serve warm with a bit of fresh bean sprouts on top – you can adjust the taste with your garnish on the side ie. lemon, sugar, chilli flakes, etc. just like in Thailand. Enjoy!