Pad Thai

 Time to finally try making Pad Thai, or at least fake Pad Thai.  This ubiquitous dish seems to be everywhere...as expected in Thai restaurants, but also the asian place in the food court, the Vietnamese place run by the nice Indian lady, and even that take-out deli lunch place near your workplace. For some reason, actually probably that reason, I've never bothered trying to make it at home.  Well here is my chance, SO bought a Pad Thai spice packet from the supermarket.

Pad Thai spice packet

Hmmm, should be OK. Basically the recipe is up to you in terms of your protein choice, and what other fresh stuff you want to put in. The suggestion was some peanuts and sprouts, along with the spice packet which you mix with water, milk, and peanut butter. Excellent, I love improvising - lots of other stuff I can try adding. And even better, a family friend was coming over - the perfect guinea pig scenario. So I settled on chicken and tofu (the firm kind, so it wouldn't fall apart when cooking), lots of sprouts, and the suggested rice noodles, called Banh Pho, a.k.a. rice sticks. I also love fresh herbs, so a bunch of cilantro (here's a link for an explanation of cilantro vs coriander). There were also a couple eggs.  I ended up cooking too much chicken, so I had to make more sauce. I just supplemented the given recipe with some fish sauce, white wine vinegar, water, and a bit more milk and peanut butter. 

The finished Pad Thai dish, with chicken and tofu

 All in all, it turned out pretty good. I should have put in more cilantro leaves. I'd read lots about how it can be tricky to cook the noodles the right amount, I was worried about overly chewy noodles. So at the appointed time I drained and cooled them off with cold water. They had to be thrown in and mixed with the rest anyway, although it took longer to heat through. 

Next Time:  hmmm, lots of things.  More cilantro, different brand of noodles, more crunched peanuts, another egg.  I'd also slice the chicken finer, and make it a bit more saucier.

Me: 7.5/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 1/10  (hard time with this one, had to separate the chicken and a few scraped off noodles)

Pad Thai with Chicken and Tofu
Ingredients

• Pad Thai spice packet: this one recommended making a sauce with the contents of the packet, plus some milk, peanut butter, and water. If you need more sauce like I did, you can try adding things like fish sauce, white wine vinegar, more milk, and water. If adding lots more, then also add more peanut butter and dried chillies.
• I went with chicken (sliced finely) and tofu (the firm kind pressed into a block)
• good handful of cilantro leaves
• 4 or 5 Tbsp unsalted peanuts roughly chopped
• lots of sprouts, I put in probably 10-12 oz
• 4 or 5 green onions

Method

1. I found the timing difficult on this one. Basically, you want the chicken cooked, the green onions fried a bit, the eggs cooked and mixed in, and everything else combined and heated.
2. I used my huge frying pan with steep sides, but next time I'll try the wok.