Canadian Travel News Recipe of the Day: Authentic Pad Thai

January 16, 2021 ctn_admin

Thai food is one of the most popular cuisines around the world, a wonderful mix of salt and sweet and spice and fresh flavours that jump off a plate.

It’s hard to imagine it, but there was a time in Canada when Thai food was a bit exotic. Back in the early 1980s, there seemed to be only a handful of Thai restaurants in Toronto. Now, there’s seemingly one on every block, if not more.

Thai cuisine is remarkably varied, but the most popular dish in North America is Pad Thai; a strange-sounding mix of rice noodles, fish sauce, shrimp (usually dried shrimp in Thailand, not the plump, sweet ones we mostly go for), egg, bean sprouts and other ingredients.

This recipe from ThaiTable.com has some exotic bits that you might not be able to find, but they’re totally optional.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 package Thai rice noodles
• 1-1/3 cup bean sprouts Optional
• 1/2 cup banana flower Optional
• 1-1/2 cup Chinese Chives Optional
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 tablespoon preserved turnip Optional
• 1/3 cup extra firm tofu
• 1/2 lime
• 2 tablespoons peanuts Optional
• 1/2-1/4 lb shrimp Optional
• Ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground, dried chili pepper
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 4 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 egg

PREPARING

Start with soaking the dry noodles in lukewarm or room temperature water while preparing the other ingredients. Getting the noodles just right is the trickiest part of making Pad Thai. Make sure that the noodles are submerged in plenty of water. By the time you are ready to put ingredients in the pan, the noodles should be flexible but not mushy. Julienne tofu and cut into one-inch-long matchsticks. When cut, the super firm tofu/pressed tofu should have a mozzarella cheese consistency. You can fry the tofu separately until golden brown and hard, or you can fry with other ingredients below.

Cut the Chinese chives into one-inch-long pieces. Set aside a few fresh chives for a garnish. Rinse the bean sprouts and save half for serving fresh. Mince shallot and garlic together.

COOKING

Use a wok or a large cast iron pan. If you do not have a wok any big pot will do. Heat it up on high heat and pour oil in the wok. Fry the peanuts until toasted and remove them from the wok. The peanuts can be toasted in the pan without oil as well. Add shallot, preserved turnip, garlic and tofu and stir them until they start to brown. The noodles should be flexible but not expanded at this point. Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Stir quickly to keep things from sticking. Add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce and chili pepper. Stir. The heat should remain high. If your wok is not hot enough, you will see a lot of juice in the wok at this point. Turn up the heat if that’s the case.

Make room for the egg by pushing all the noodles to the side of the wok. Crack the egg into the wok and scramble it until it is almost all cooked. Fold the egg into the noodles. The noodles should be soft and chewy. Pull a strand out and taste. If the noodles are too hard, add a little bit of water. When you get the right taste, add shrimp and stir. Sprinkle white pepper around. Add bean sprouts and chives. Stir a few more times. The noodles should be soft, dry and very tangled.

Pour onto the serving plate and sprinkle with ground pepper and peanuts. Serve hot with the banana flower slice, a wedge of lime on the side, raw Chinese chives and raw bean sprouts on top.

As always, in Thailand, condiments such as sugar, chili pepper, vinegar and fish sauce are available at your table for your personal taste. Some people add more chili pepper or sugar.

Note from editor-in-chief Jim Byers: I sometimes make Pad Thai at home. It’s frowned upon my most Thai chefs, but it’s common in North America to add a splash of ketchup for sweetness and colour. I often add a bit of ketchup and a fair bit of Sriracha for spice. I’m sensitive to peanuts, so I substitute cashews. I don’t know where one would buy banana flowers in Toronto, but I bet someone knows a place to get them.

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