Shrimp pad Thai
A great classic of Thai cuisine. An enormous amount of flavor is concentrated in this exceptional dish, which does require an investment in prep time and ingredient hunting.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 50 ml water≈ 50 g
- 50 ml tamarind juice (20g tamarind pulp + 50ml hot water)≈ 50 g
- 25 ml fish sauce≈ 25 g
- 25 g palm sugar (otherwise 20g brown sugar)
- 2 dried red chilies
- 1 long mild Thai chili (optional)
- 2 shallots
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 g salt
Pad Thai
- 200 g rice noodles (dried)
- 5 shrimp
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp pickled white radish (Chai Po)
- 1 tsp dried baby shrimp
- 100 g firm or pressed tofu
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 shallot
- 3 Chinese chives (otherwise chives or scallions)
- 100 g bean sprouts
- 40 g peanuts
- vegetable oil
- 1 egg (garnish)
- 0,3 lime (garnish)
- 1 tbsp chili powder (garnish)
- 1 tbsp peanuts (garnish)
- 2 Chinese chives (garnish)
- 20 g bean sprouts (garnish)
Method
- 1Soak the rice noodles in water for 1 hour.
Sauce
- 2Deseed the chilies and chop them roughly. Peel the garlic and shallots but keep them whole.
- 3Prepare the tamarind juice by mixing the tamarind pulp well with hot water. Once homogeneous, strain and set aside.
- 4Chop the palm sugar with a knife. Set aside.
- 5In a small saucepan, add the chilies, shallots and garlic cloves to boiling water. Cook 15 minutes over gentle heat, covered, until the ingredients are tender. Blend everything until you get a smooth sauce.
- 6Return to gentle heat. Add the fish sauce, tamarind juice, palm sugar and a bit of salt. Simmer over gentle heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pad Thai
- 7Cut the tofu into small cubes about 0.5 cm. Set aside.
- 8Roughly chop the pickled radish if it isn't already. Set aside.
- 9Mince the garlic and slice the shallot. Set aside.
- 10Chop the dried shrimp with a knife. Set aside.
- 11Cut the chives into pieces about 4 cm long. Discard the lower part which is a bit tough, or cut it lengthwise into quarters. Set aside.
- 12Roughly chop the peanuts with a knife. Set aside.
- 13Prepare the shrimp: remove the head, shell, and devein. Leave just the tail. Rinse and set aside.
- 14Cook a thin omelet crepe in a pan to wrap the pad Thai. Set aside.
- 15Heat a pan over medium heat, add oil. Cook the shrimp until pink (1 minute per side). Set aside.
- 16In the same pan, add a little more oil, cook the tofu until lightly colored (1 minute per side).
- 17Add the shrimp, pickled radish, garlic, shallot, dried shrimp. Stir.
- 18Add the noodles and sauce, cook 3 minutes, stirring.
- 19Push the ingredients to the side of the pan, add oil to the freed space, add an egg. Scramble the egg lightly with your spatula, place the noodles on top and cook 1 minute over gentle heat. Then stir to combine.
- 20Turn off the heat, add the chives, bean sprouts and peanuts. Stir.
- 21Plate the pad Thai wrapped in its omelet crepe. Garnish around the plate with: chives, bean sprouts, lime, chili powder and peanuts. Serve.
Notes
I recommend making the sauce in advance, the day before or the morning of. Same for the noodles: once soaked and drained, they keep very well in the fridge. By preparing things ahead, you'll be much more efficient when cooking the pad Thai. When making the sauce, you're playing with sweet (palm sugar), salty (salt + fish sauce), sour (tamarind) and spicy. The result is a sauce with enormous flavor. Don't hesitate to adjust the quantities to your taste, but the sauce should still lean toward the sweet side. If your tofu is sold in liquid, remember to press it by wrapping it in a clean cloth and putting weight on top. This step will dry it out and help it better absorb the sauce's flavor. Tamarind juice is made by mixing tamarind pulp with hot water. Mix well and strain. Tamarind pulp can be bought at an Asian grocer or online. Pickled white radish (Chai Po) can be bought at an Asian grocer or online. The yellow Japanese version can possibly be substituted. If you find neither, you can still cook the pad Thai without this ingredient.
