This dish is one of my absolute favourites. When I finished school I worked in a boarding school, in Bangkok as a teaching assistant, and one of my colleagues suggested one evening that we should all go and get pad thai at the corner. When he said to the corner.. he meant it. There was a guy with a cart stood on the corner cooking the most delicious pad thai I have ever had - it had pickled radish, dried shrimp, peanuts, scallions, bean sprouts, lime, noodles, egg and the sauce... oh the sauce, the perfect balance of sweet palm sugar, sour tamarind and lime, and salty fish sauce. The man would cook it and then wrap it in a grease proof paper and give you some chop sticks, we'd then take it back to the school or eat on the side walk. This is the closest I have ever come to recreating this dish.
Serves 2 - I wouldn't recommend cooking more than two servings at a time unless you have a huge pan like those used for paella, the reason for this is that the liquid won't evaporate, the eggs will take too long to cook and you will end up with a mushy mess. The good thing is that once everything is prepped it only takes a couple of minutes to fry up so you could cook it in batches.
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
35g Palm Sugar (you can use brown sugar or other sugar if you can't get palm sugar)
10g Tamarind Paste mixed into 20ml of water. (if you can't get tamarind paste you can substitute with lime juice, but you will loose some of the flavour)
30g or ml of fish sauce
5ml of soy sauce
a pinch of chilli powder
For the pad thai
150g of flat rice noodles (sen lek)
1tbs oil
1/2 red onion chopped (ideally you should use sweet pickled radishes, but being in lockdown this wasn't possible - the red onion or shallot should also work)
1 clove or garlic minced
100g tofu
6 prawns
100g bean sprouts
2 eggs beaten
To Garnish
Peanuts
Green onions
Wedge of lime
Method
Mix all of the elements of the sauce in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and remove from the heat.
Prepare all of the other ingredients, chop the onion, cut the tofu into about 7mm squares, mince the garlic, de-vain the prawns and beat the eggs and wash the bean sprouts. Put everything next to the stove within quick reach.
Put the noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 10 minutes (on a timer). Stir frequently to prevent them from sticking.
Once the noodles have been on for about 4 minutes heat a wok or a large frying pan on medium -high heat. Add the oil
Once the oil is hot add the onion and garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add the tofu and stir fry until it starts to develop some colour.
Add the prawns and while they turn pink drain the noodles. They should have been in for 10 minutes and should be mostly soft.
As soon as the prawns are pink on both sides turn the heat up to high, add the noodles and the sauce to the wok. Stir until the noodles are evenly coated in the sauce.
Push the noodles to a side to create a well in the middle (like the photo below). Pour the egg into the middle and scramble in the middle of the wok. As soon as the egg is cooked mix it into the noodles and serve.
Garnish with crushed peanuts, green onions and serve with a wedge of lime.
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