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Pad Thai YOUR Way / https://www.hwcmagazine.com
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Pad Thai YOUR Way

Pad Thai Your Way is a classic Thailand Street food made easily at home with vegetables, rice noodles, shrimp, tofu and a delicious traditional sauce.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Mains
Cuisine: Thai
Servings: 4
Calories: 405kcal
Author: HWC Magazine

Ingredients

  • 12 oz Pad Thai Rice Noodles medium size
  • Water for softening noodles

Sauce

  • 6 tablespoon Brown sugar (can use palm sugar or light or dark brown sugar or sugar alternative)
  • ½ cup Tamarind
    paste or puree (check out our notes below for substitution ideas)
  • 4 tablespoon Fish sauce
  • 6 tablespoon Hot water

Stir Frying

  • 4 tablespoon Oil for frying
  • 6 oz Tofu
    (dried well and cut into matchsticks) – optional
  • 8 oz Shrimp
    raw large peeled, deveined (or about 3-4 shrimp per person)
  • 1 Shallots 1 peeled and sliced into half-moons (or about ½ cup)
  • 4 cloves Garlic
    peeled and minced
  • ¼ cup Sweet preserved daikon radish pickles
    optional
  • 4 Egg
    optional
  • 2.5 cups Bean sprouts (mung Beans) (reserve some for garnishing)
  • 6 Green onion cut into match stick sizes (reserve some for garnishing)
  • ½ cup Peanuts chopped (reserve some for garnishing)- optional

Garnishes

  • 4 wedges Limes
    fresh
  • Chili
    ground dried or fresh- optional
  • Beans sprouts
    (sprouted mung beans) optional
  • Green onions
    optional
  • Ground peanuts optional

Instructions

  • Prepare your noodles: Place your noodles in a large bowl and cover with luke warm water for about 30 minutes or until the noodles are pliable but firm to the touch. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and set aside. (Alternatively, you can boil water and pour over noodles for about 2-5 minutes or just until pliable but still firm to the touch, drain, rinse with cold water and drain. Keep a very close eye and feel on noodles so they do not get too soft) Set aside. Do not over soakyour noodles until they are aldente. The noodles will be stir fried again so they need to be firmer than aldente.
  • Prepare your sauce: In a medium bowl, add brown sugar, tamarind paste, fish sauce and hot water. Stir to dissolve brown sugar and tamarind paste. The paste should be a little thick so that it coats the back of a spoon. Remove from pan and set aside.
  • Place oil in pan and fry your tofu until crispy on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside. Add your shrimp and pan sear on all sides until pink and no longer translucent. Remove from pan and set aside.
  • Prepare all of your prepared ingredients in place (mise en place) so you are ready to do a quick stir fry. (extra oil for frying, shallots, garlic, Sweet preserved daikon radish pickles, Pad Thai softened noodles, eggs, bean sprouts, green onions and peanuts, fried tofu, cooked shrimp and Pad Thai prepared sauce) and set it next to your stove. Set aside and separate some bean sprouts, green onion and peanuts for garnish for 4 servings.
  • If you have a super large wok and everyone wants the same ingredients, you can make it all in one batch. However, you can make your Pad Thai YOUR way with different additions for each person. Then you can make each portion separately. This recipe makes about 4 portions.
  • Stir frying: We prefer to make each person’s serving separately as we have a smaller wok. Add a little oil in your wok and add the about ¼th of the shallots, ¼ th of the garlic , ¼th of the sweet preserved daikon radish pickles and stir fry until aromatic. Next add ¼ of the prepared Pad Thai rice noodles and ¼ th the Pad Thai sauce and stir fry until the noodles are well coated and almost aldente. (if your wok is dry and the noodles are still not aldente, you can add a tablespoon or two of water to your wok and fry until aldente.)
  • Move your noodles to one side and up on the edge of your wok. Add an egg and break the yolk and cook until scrambled and then mix your noodles into eggs. Add ¼ th of the bean sprouts, ¼ of the green onions, fried tofu, shrimp and just a few ground peanuts and stir fry for a minute to incorporate all the ingredients. Repeat this process for the other 3 servings.
  • Serve your Pad Thai YOUR way with lime wedges, extra ground peanuts, mung bean (bean sprouts), dried chili or fresh chili. Spritz with lime juice and enjoy.

Video

Notes

Please scroll down for Step by Step photos and Recipe Video.
If you have an extra-large wok, you can cook the whole batch at once. However, we have a small wok. In addition, everyone likes different additions to their Pad Thai. We cook each individual portion separately so we can have good stir fry action in the wok.
The exact measurements for additions of the items do not need to be exact. Add as little or as much as you desire.
If you want to keep your recipe gluten-free, make sure you use a gluten-free fish sauce brand and gluten-free Pad Thai rice noodles.
Feel free to substitute shrimp with thinly sliced chicken, pork, beef or mushrooms. If you want your Pad Thai sauce sourer, add more tamarind.
On the other hand, if you want your Pad Thai sweeter, add more brown sugar or savorier, add a little extra fish sauce. Everyone has their own personal taste so adjust to your liking.
Tamarind Substitutions/ Exchanges:
1) Pomegranate Molasses is reduced pomegranate juice and has that sour but slightly sweet undertones and is about the closest substitute for tamarind . It is much thinner than tamarind paste. If you use pomegranate molasses instead of tamarind in your Pad Thai sauce, reduce the amount of hot water added.  Use only 1 tablespoon, just enough to melt the brown sugar or palm sugar. 
2)Pureed Prunes and rice vinegar seems like an odd combination but just trust us. It works. For every 4 dried prunes, add 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar. Place both your prunes and vinegar in a food processor to blend. If you need to, you can add a little water to help blend into a thick paste. You can use pureed prunes and rice vinegar paste in the same ratio as tamarind paste. 

Nutrition

Serving: 4g | Calories: 405kcal | Carbohydrates: 321g | Protein: 242g | Fat: 21g | Cholesterol: 119mg | Sodium: 1892mg | Potassium: 52mg | Fiber: 34g | Sugar: 243g