Pad Thai
I got so lucky to get to know a Thai lady in Suva. Her name is Noi. She had beautiful tall Thai basil in her garden. It was her who taught me her own version of Pad Thai, in which I still use until now. There are the basic ingredients of oil, garlic, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and some tamarind sauce or vinegar to give it a kick, flat noodles, egg, beansprouts, spring onions and ground peanuts. With the pics above, I just used what I have at home. Left picture: zucchini, baby spinach, ground and whole peanuts and salted eggs and since I ran out of oyster sauce, I just did not add it. Right picture: ground beef, boiled potatoes, coriander
The important thing is to have a lot of sauce to coat everything and you can stretch that by using oil.
oil
garlic
oyster sauce
fish sauce
sugar
tamarind sauce or vinegar
egg
flat noodles
beansprouts
ground peanuts
chili (optional)
Soak the noodles in warm water until soft. In a pan put on high heat and fry garlic in oil. Then add all the sauces and chili. Then the egg. Put the meat at this time if you are using some, then the veggies although the beansprouts should come last. Add noodles. This is when it can get tricky because it must be cooked but since the fire is so high, it gets quickly dry therefore do a lot of sauce already at the beginning. Add a bit water if noodles are not done. If too much water, the noodles will be soggy. Then put a cup of beansprouts. Garnish with ground peanuts, spring onions or coriander and serve with nam pla (lemon juice, fish sauce, chili). Serve immediately!
I think serving Pad Thai should be from the kitchen to the table food but when I froze some leftover, I get a compliment from my husband that they are still very good. Well, perhaps I am the one who is demanding!
