The Real LC: pad thai

This has been one of my favorite dishes since I first tried it in St. Louis on my orientation visit in 2001. There were about 5 thai restaurants on "the loop" in st. louis, all named some variation of "Thai Country Cafe," all owned by the same people and all serving the exact same food. We never did figure that one out, but they're still there, and still serving up some delish thai food. I made my first version of pad thai a few years ago and have been tweaking it to my taste, adding veggies here and there, using shrimp, chicken, and/or tofu and playing with the sauce. I cooked dinner for my parents sunday and my dad loves him some pad thai, so lucky for him I was up for a trip to the asian grocery to pick up some supplies.

Authentic pad thai consists of noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, a protein, an egg, cooking oil (usually sesame), and pad thai sauce. The Pad Thai sauce is a combination of tamarind (sour flavor), fish sauce (salty flavor), palm sugar (sweet), and some paprika or thai chilis (for the heat) usually 1 part tamarind juice, 1 part palm sugar and 1 part fish sauce, and as much heat as you can bear. You can substitute brown or white sugar for the palm sugar if you don't have it, it just takes a little less. You can also add a little lime juice to the sauce to counteract the bitter tamarind, or you can just serve with a lime so your eater can do the adjusting.

It can take a lot of oil to keep the noodles from sticking, so work fast and if you need to, you can use a little chicken broth at the beginning of the stir fry to avoid using too much oil.

Pad Thai Sauce
*3 tbls Tamarind Juice = 1/4 cup Tamarind paste soaked in 1/4 cup warm water and strained
*3 tbl. fish sauce
*2 tbl. sugar (or 3 tbl palm sugar)
*1 tbl. lime juice
*2 tsp. thai chilis

Pad Thai Stir Fry
*12 ounces noodles
*1-1.5 lb. chicken (tofu or shrimp or combo)
*2 tsp. minced garlic
*1/2 cup sliced onions + 1/2 cup sliced green peppers (optional lc addition)
*1 egg
*1.5 cup bean sprouts cut into 1 inch pieces
*2 tbl. soy sauce
*2 tbl. corn starch dissolved into the soy sauce

My dad's not a tofu fan, so I'm not using it, but I love it and highly recommend!

Marinate your protein in the soy sauce and cornstarch.

While marinating, work on the sauce. to get the juice, soak the tamarind paste in 1/4 cup warm water, at least 15 minutes. The paste is chunky and sticky, but it's not that scary to work with. Just cut off a hunk that you eyeball to be about 1/4 cup and put it in the hot water in a little bowl.

After it has soaked and becomes goopy or mudlike, mash the thick mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Be sure to push it all through and be sure to scrape the bottom of the strainer for the clinging tamarind juice. I can't lie, I might have used my hands for this smoooshing part.
You should get about 3 tablespoons of tamarind juice out of this.

Add this to the fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice in a small pan over low heat and mix thoroughly until dissolved. You can mess with the proportions till you get what you like. Once you're happy with the flavor, add a tsp or so of the chili powder until you get the desired heat. Didn't grab a pic of the finished sauce, but you can imagine it's a thin brown sauce.

Now prep the noodles by soaking them in warm water for 5-8 minutes, until slightly softened but still holding textures (we don't want mushy noodles and they're still going to be stir-fried in the wok). Drain immediately and set aside.

Now we stir fry. Get everything all set up. Slice the chicken and have a bowl of the sauce ready to go. Heat 1 tbl sesame oil in wok, add garlic and stir 20 seconds. I needs to be REALLY HOT and smoking! Add chicken and onions and peppers and stir-fry for 1 minute. If using, add tofu and shrimp now for 1 more minute.

Break in an egg and fry for 1-2 minutes. Didn't get a pic of this part either.

Now add in the drained noodles and fold them over, stir-frying from bottom up (add oil if noodles are sticking. Add in the tamarind sauce and continue stir-frying, mixing everything together. The noodles will reduce to about half their original volume and should become al dente.