Pad Thai is an incredibly popular stir fried noodle dish from Thailand. Commonly found at street food vendors, Pad Thai is made with rice noodles, scrambled eggs, garlic chives and crunchy peanuts.
How very blessed I am to be raised with the Thai Cuisine! Having a Thai mom, I grew up with Pad Thai and this is so delicious! Downside is that when you know how it’s supposed to taste like, you don’t settle for the ‘Westernised’ version of Pad Thai at Chinese take aways.
But guess what? You don’t have to either, because I am going to share the recipe with you today so you can have your own taste of Thailand in the comfort of your own home.
Ingredients Pad Thai:
For the marinade of the meat we will need:
- 300 gr pork loin (or chicken or beef if you don’t like pork)
- pinch of baking soda (some countries call it bi-carb soda)
- splash of Maggi seasoning
For the rest of the Pad Thai we’ll need:
- 250 gr dried rice noodles
- 100 gr peanuts
- Bunch (100 gr) garlic chives
- 300 gr bean sprouts
- 1 cup dried shrimps
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 ½ tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 shallot
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 1 tsp Maggi seasoning
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- splash of water
- ½ tbsp vinegar
Instructions Pad Thai:
I will admit, I stuffed up a little bit with taking pictures here. Twice actually. The first time I was so busy trying to record videos, I completely forgot to take pictures! The second time I was just really hungry and couldn’t wait to eat😂 Anyway, this recipe is too good not to share, so I will talk you through it🙈
Prepping time!
STEP 1:
So the first thing you want to do is to soak the noodles in a bowl of lukewarm water, so it becomes soft and easier to handle when you put it in the wok.
STEP 2:
Then you roast the peanuts in a DRY frying pan until they look a bit charred and put it aside to cool down.
STEP 3:
This step is what we call in the Netherlands: ‘A monk’s job’ because it requires a lot of patience. I break the ‘tails’ off the bean sprouts. Not only do they look better in your dish, it actually does elevate the dish by not leaving the feeling of hair in your mouth.
On occasion I get lucky at the Farmer’s Market and somebody already done it for me, but I’m afraid I missed out on the bean sprouts because I slept in too long this week. But I reckon little kid’s hands are perfect for this job, if you ask me 😂🙈.
STEP 3:
By the time you’re finished, the peanuts will be cooled off and ready to be crushed. Personally, I like to crush it in a mortar and pestle, but if you don’t have one, you can also chop it with your knife.
Marinate the pork in a pinch of baking soda (bi-carb soda) and a splash of Maggi seasoning. The baking soda will make sure the pork stays soft after stir-frying, instead of drying it out.
Heat up a frying pan (or do it in the wok and scoop it out to add later on) with oil. Crack the eggs in the pan and scramble them. Usually, the eggs get scrambled in the same pan later on, with the meat pushed to one side, but I reckon it gets a bit of a funny color that way because of the sauces in the pan, so I do it up front and add it later.
Let’s get cooking!
Heat up the wok with some oil and add garlic and pork. From here, we’re going to act pretty quick, because we don’t want our meat to get chewy, so just before your meat is entirely cooked, add the tamarind paste, maggi and fish sauce.
Once the meat is evenly coated, add in sugar, shallots and dried shrimp and stir this through for about one minute. The dried shrimp, together with the peanuts, gives Pad Thai that savory, umami flavor. If you can’t find dried shrimp in your local supermarket, go to an Asian supermarket. They will definitely have it. (Personally, I try to avoid my Asian supermarket as it is my kryptonite and I always overspend in there.🙈)
Strain the rice noodles and add these to the pan together with the sweet soy sauce and vinegar. I add the sweet soy sauce later, because the pan gets really sticky (despite the fact that it’s a non-stick pan). The noodles will soak up the excess liquid as you stir for about 2 minutes. Taste the noodles to be sure they’re not hard. They are supposed to have an al-dente texture like spaghetti. Add a little bit of water in case all of the liquid is already gone.
Last but not least, add the garlic chives, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and egg. Optionally, you can cook this for about 30 second or so, but I usually turn my stove off at this stage because I love the crunch of the bean sprouts and garlic chives. Turning the stove off, will also make sure that the egg and chives will maintain their color. I would be a liar if I said that I don’t eat with my eyes.🤪 Stir everything together and dish up!
Time to dish up!
Traditionally Pad Thai is served with condiments like chilli powder, sugar and chillies in vinegar. This way everyone can make their dish the flavor they like it. For example, my youngest boy can not eat spicy at all, but I reckon my blood type is chilli, but I can add it later. So this way, I don’t have to cook separately for myself, which is a bonus.😊
Bon Appetit, eet smakelijk and enjoy your dinner!
Pad Thai
Equipment
- 1 Wok pan or a different pan for stir-fry
- 1 Mortar and pestle optional
Ingredients
Meat Marinade
- 300 gr pork loin (or chicken or beef, if preferred)
- pinch of baking soda (bi-carb soda)
- 1/2 tsp Maggi seasoning
Phad Thai
- 250 gr dried rice noodles
- 1 shallot sliced
- 100 gr peanuts roasted and roughly crushed
- 1 cup dried shrimps
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 100 gr gr garlic chives cut in 1 inch pieces
- 300 gr bean sprouts
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tsp Maggi seasoning
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp ketjap Manis (sweet soy sauce)
- splash of water
Instructions
- Cut the meat and marinate with a pinch of baking soda and Maggi seasoning
- Soak the noodles in a bowl of lukewarm water
- Roast the peanuts in a frying pan and set aside to cool down
- Pick the 'tails' off the bean sprouts, cut the garlic chives in inch long pieces, slice the shallot and crush the garlic in mortar and pestle (or cut finely)
- Crush the peanuts coarsely in mortar and pestle. (Put about 1/2 cup aside for garnish)
- Heat some oil in the wok, scramble the eggs and transfer it to a bowl for later
- Heat the same wok pan again with some oil and saute the garlic, until they brown a little bit.
- Add the pork and stir for approx. 1-2 minutes.
- Add tamarind paste, fish sauce, maggi seasoning and stir until the meat is coated with the sauce
- Add sugar, shallots and dried shrimp. Stir through for a couple of seconds.
- Strain the soaked noodles, add into the wok with vinegar and sweet soy sauce. Stir around until the water evaporated and the noodles feel 'al dente'. (Add a little more water if needed, this depends on the noodles and how long they have been soaking for)
- Crush the peanuts roughly in a mortar and pestle (or mixer) and set about 1 tbsp of peanuts aside for garnish
- Turn off the heat and add the bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg and peanuts
- Stir through and dish up
- Garnish with peanuts, some more garlic chives and a bit of lime if you have it.
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