Conference turris::cooks

Thai Home-Cooking from Kamolmal's Kitchen
William Crawford and Kamolmal Pootaraksa
New American Library, 1985

Pad Thai

Serves 6-8

1/2 pound dried rice noodles 1/8 inch wide
1/2 pound of shrimp or chicken,pork,or combination
1/4 cup of fish sauce
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 teaspon of catsup
4 scallions
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon(2 cloves) of garlic
2 eggs
1/4 pound of bean sprouts
2 tablespoons of ground roasted chilies
1/4 cup of ground roasted unsalted peanuts
lime wedge

1. Soak the noodles in warm water for 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to let 
   them get mushy! They will soften later when you cook them.

2. Peel and devein the shrimp leaving the tail or cut the meat into 1/8 x 
   1-2 inch stips.

3. Mix the fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, catsup together until the sugar is 
   disolved. Set the mixture aside. Slice the scallions into 1/4 x 1 1/2
   inch diagonal strips(both white and green parts). Set aside.

4. Heat wok, add oil and swirl it over the surface of the wok. Add the 
   garlic and stir-fry until golden brown. Add the fish 
   or meat and cook until the pink color disappears completely. Add the 
   noodles and toss until they are coated with oil.

5. Add the liquid from step 3 and bring to a rapid boil, gently folding 
   the noodles w/o breaking them. Reduce the heat to medium and boil the 
   mixture, folding frequently until the noodles have absorbed the liquid.

6. Using a spatula lift the noodles on one side and poor a little oil
   down the side of the wok, then break one egg and slip it into the oil. 
   Break the the yoke and cover the egg with noodles immediately. Repeat 
   this on the other side with the remaining egg. Allow the eggs to 
   cook until they are almost dry.
 
7. When the eggs are almost dry fold them in gently but rapidly into the 
    noodles. 

8. Add the bean sprouts and scallions and toss until they are tender-crisp.
   (cook for approx. 2 minutes).

9. Place the mixture on a large warm platter. Sprinkle the ground chilies
   and peanutes and squeze the lime juice over the top.
    

    Tried the recipe in .1 and it was very good.
    It was, however, a little heavy on the vinegar.  I would reduce
    that ingredient and HALVE the amount of ground chille.  While
    I prefer hot food, this amount was barely palatable to myself,
    which meant that it was really a struggle for others who sampled
    it.  

    As an alternative, in the future I would serve it as they do at
    the Southeast Asian restaurant in Lowell, namely, with the 
    ground chille and peanuts on the side.  This allows everyone
    to adjust the heat accordingly.

    I'll be trying this dish many times in the near future.  Anyone
    else have a recipe?  It is a STAPLE at Thai restaurants, so surely
    someone must have stolen a recipe somewhere.  Speak up.

    This is my wife's Pad Thai recipe. As I said these recipes vary
    wildly form chef to chef. Feel free to adjust and experiment.
    
    The noodles we use are the plain dried rice noodles that the Vietnamese
    call 'Pho'. The quantity is for the soaked noodles.
    
                                 Ingredients           
    
    2 cups	noodles
    1 cup	chopped chicken (or pork, or whole shrimp)
    1 		medium egg
    1/4 cup	[chopped] dried shrimp (from an oriental grocer)
    1/4 cup	deep fried hard tofu in 1 cm cubes
    1 cup	bean sprouts
    2 T		sugar
    1 T		fish sauce
    1/4 cup	ground unsalted roasted peanuts or cashew nuts
    2-3		scallions (sliced thinly)
    1 T		ground garlic
    
                                    method
    
    First: soak the noodles in hot water for 10 minutes then drain them
    and rinse them in cold water and drain again.
    
    Then: heat some oil in a wok on medium high heat (for this recipe
    a gas range and a round bottom wok works best). Add ground garlic
    and stir fry until just turning golden brown. Add chicken and stir
    fry until it turns white. Add dried shrimp and tofu. Add the egg
    and quickly stir it into the mixture. Add the noodles. Stir. When
    barely cooked ("chewy" texture) add fish sauce, sugar, peanuts,
    scallions and continue stirring continuously for ~2 minutes. Turn
    off heat (if using electric heat remove wok from range) and continue
    stirring for about 3 minutes. Add bean sprouts, stir [toss] and
    then adjust the balance of sugar and fish sauce to taste, then serve.
                                                                   
    Serves 1 as a main course, or 3-4 as a side dish.
    
    

I tried the recipe in .1 and it tasted exactly like the Pad Thai I've 
gotten in Thai restaurants. I agree with -1 on the vinegar. I used a little 
less than 1/4 cup. Also, I used a little less than 1/4 cup of fish sauce.
I didn't use any chilies, because I'm not used to eating Pad Thai with 
chilies in it. 

Mike D

I'm sure this is in here somewhere, but I'll repost it: this is my wife's recipe
(and is also the recipe used in the Bangkok Oriental Cuisine, Harris Pond, on the
Nashua/Merrimack line in New Hampshire - where my wife used to be the chef)



                                   Pad Thai


          Ingredients:

          �        2 cups 	   noodles

          �        1 cup   	   chopped chicken (or pork, or whole
                   		   shrimp)

          �        1      	   medium egg

          �        1/4 cup         [chopped] dried shrimp

          �        1/4 cup         deep fried hard tofu in 1 cm
                   cubes

          �        1 cup  	   bean sprouts

          �        2 T    	   sugar

          �        1 T    	   fish sauce

          �        1/4 cup         ground unsalted roasted peanuts
                   		   or cashew nuts

          �        2-3    	   scallions (sliced thinly)

          �        1 T    	   ground garlic


          Method:

               First: soak the noodles in hot water for 10 minutes
               then drain them  and rinse them in cold water and
               drain again.

               Then: heat some oil in a wok on medium high heat
               (for this recipe  a gas range and a round bottom
               wok works best). Add ground garlic  and stir fry
               until just turning golden brown. Add chicken and
               stir  fry until it turns white. Add dried shrimp
               and tofu. Add the egg  and quickly stir it into the
               mixture. Add the noodles. Stir. When  barely cooked
               ("chewy" texture) add fish sauce, sugar, peanuts,
               scallions and continue stirring continuously for ~2
               minutes. Turn  off heat (if using electric heat
               remove wok from range) and continue  stirring for
               about 3 minutes. Add bean sprouts, stir [toss] and
               then adjust the balance of sugar and fish sauce to
               taste, then serve.


          Serves:  1 (as main course)






                                    Page [ 1 ]

as a footnote - you will observe that my wife's recipe has *no* ground chili
powder. 

This is not an oversight: the normal method of serving pad thai in Thailand is 
to serve it with a bowl of freshly crushed red chili powder as a condiment.

The diner then adds as much or as little as they choose.

Other suitable "condiments" include sugar, fish sauce and chilis in fish sauce
and chilis in vinegar. Thus equiped a diner may produce any combination of
hot, salty, and sweet they choose.

/. Ian .\

All these Pad Thai recipes are listing 'Fish sauce'.  Just exactly what is
that, and where do you buy it?

Thx,
	Al

    It is a sauce of fish extracts, I believe it is usually something like
    water, anchovy extract and salt.  It smell *horrible*, but makes a good
    seasoning in small doeses.
    
    You can get it at any Asian grocery store or some "gourmet" stores.
    I would recomend the Asian groceries where you will get a better
    selection at a fraction of the cost.
    
    
    				-David

    Also called Oyster Sauce too.  Is very thick, yet adds a nice flavor
    	to a stir-fry meal.
    

�    Also called Oyster Sauce too.  Is very thick, yet adds a nice flavor
�    	to a stir-fry meal.
    
    No.  Fish sauce and Oyster sauce are two completely different things. 
    Fish sauce has the consistency of soy sauce.  Oyster sauce as mentioned
    above is thick.  Fish sauce is made from fish.  Oyster sauce is made
    from oysters.

An alert to the squeamish - you really should stop reading, you don't want 
to know how fish sauce is made.

To make fish sauce, you build a pile of alternating layers of whole fish 
and salt.  Then you leave it out in the sun for a few weeks.  Then you 
press the juices out of it.  The juices are fish sauce.  There are various 
grades, manily determined by which pressing the sauce comes from.  The best 
fish sauce is first pressing (just like with olive oil).

--PSW

         The bottle of Thai fish sauce in my kitchen is made up of 
         water, salt (22%) and fish.  I have always understood that 
         the Thais use it as a seasoning and don't add salt to the 
         dish as well.
         
         According to Madhur Jaffrey it can be made from shrimps or 
         fish and is used in much the same way as Soy sauce in China.
         
         Here is an example from her Far Eastern Cookery of a dip 
         using fish sauce.
         
         Fish Sauce seasoned with Lime Juice and Chilli
         
         1 fresh hot green or red chilli
         4 tablespoons fish sauce
         2 tablespoons lime juice
         
         finely slice chilli and put in small serving bowl.  Add fish 
         sauce and lime juice, stir and put on the table with any Thai 
         meal.
         
         Ian

    There are two brands of fish sauce that my son recomends.. "Squid Brand
    and "Fat Boy"  My bottle of squid brand says that it is..Anchovy
    extract water and salt" It is imported from Bancock.
    
    Most of the label is in Thai but sports a big squid on it.. a little
    goes a looooong way!
    
    Bob

RE: .13

Ah, but they gloss over how they extract the anchovies, don't they?

--PSW

    Kinda makes you wonder where baby oil comes from.....
    
    Bob

    "A Taste Of Thai" markets a fish sauce thru "normal" grocery stores,
    although I believe they call if "Thai Seasoning Sauce" with no hint
    of it's origins. The little bottles are vastly overpriced compared to
    what you can buy in an Asian grocery.
    
    Edd

    re: fish sauce - ignore the smell and dump it in!  It's great!  I
    usually use more fish sauce than called for in the previous recipes. 
    mmmm!
    
    What I'm wondering about fish sauce, though, is it's fat content?  I've
    heard it refered to as fish oil, but it's consistency is not at all
    oily, so that can't be accurate.
    
    Do you think I could use fish sauce on my Caeser salad when I'm out of
    anchovies? 
    
    D!

I don't think there's much fat in fish sauce.  I'd be surprised if it was 
even 1%.  It most definitely is NOT the same thing as fish oil (which by 
definition is 100% fat).

--PSW

    RE: .17
    
    If you're worrying about getting too much fat from fish sauce - you're
    using way too much.  I've never seen a medium size recipe call for
    more than a tablespoon.  A tablespoon of any food isn't going to make a
    huge difference - even if it was oil.
    
    My guess would be that it's mostly water anyway.  The only thing to
    be concerned about is if you're watching you're sodium.
    
    
    				-David

>    If you're worrying about getting too much fat from fish sauce - you're
>    using way too much.  

Not at all.  I've done some experimenting with pad thai, and found that
2 T for 2 (large!) servings is just the taste I like.

> A tablespoon of any food isn't going to make a
>    huge difference - even if it was oil.

I monitor my fat intake closely.  A Tablespoon of oil is about 15 grams, or
almost 140 calories worth of fat.  That is my whole day's allotment of
added fat.  Add to that the fat necessary for frying the noodles (about
1/2 T, I've found) and the fat in the egg and the peanuts, it can get
pretty substantial.

If you think a Tablespoon of oil can't affect a diet, you've obviously
never been on a strict controlled eating plan.

D!

    Strict controlled eating in the first place ie.leave all the sweet
    stuff out of your diet as its unnecessary, is easier than trying to
    lose the weight afterwards.Savoury is so much nicer anyway!
    Just a thought.
    Geoff.

re: .21

>                        -< Sugar the root of all evil! >-
>
>    Strict controlled eating in the first place ie.leave all the sweet
>    stuff out of your diet as its unnecessary, is easier than trying to
>    lose the weight afterwards.Savoury is so much nicer anyway!

One hardly needs sugar to gain weight!  I don't have much of a sweet-tooth
at all, and I still manage to enlarge the old belly. :-)

-Hal

    Oh no! I forgot,there's sugar in beer too!!!!!
    I'm sunk too,
    Geoff.

    ORIGIN!!!!SORRY.

re: .23

>    Oh no! I forgot,there's sugar in beer too!!!!!

Actually, there's very little sugar in beer.  Beer is made *from* sugars,
but the fermentaion process changes most of the sugar to alcohol.

Beer has plenty of calories, though. :-(

Sorry for getting back to the topic ;-)

Generally you'll fish sauce paired with sugar in Thai recipes -- sort of
a standard combination. Real Thai food uses lots more sugar
than one sees in Thai restaurants in the US.

    I don't eat any sugar.
    
    But thanks for the health tip.
    
    D!

    Re: -2
    The body then promptly turns all the alcohol back into sugar,its magic!
    
    Back to the point,I think it important to use the ingredients in the
    way they were intended.If Pad Thai is supposed to have sugar or salt in
    it so be it.If manufacturers make it with other ingredients they
    should call it something else.I'm fed up with things being sanitized to 
    give them a wider market,I once went to a pub and ordered chilli,it 
    arrived and I tasted it,there was no chilli in it.The landlord said
    "People don't like to eat it if its hot." I said "then why do they
    order chilli?"."Dunno but if we put it in they send it back" he said.
    Its like de-alcoholised wine,a producer spends ages making the wine and
    then someone comes along and tries to turn it back into grape juice.
    Lunacy.
    
    
    G.

RE: .28

Actually, the body turns the alcohol into acetic acid, by way of 
acetaldehyde.  There isn't any path for the formation of net new sugar 
molecules using ethanol as a source.

--PSW

    So do we get fat on acetic acid psw? Whats the process from there?
    Where do the nasty calories come from?
    Interested from Salisbury.

RE: .30

Acetic acid, esterified to a molecule called coenzyme A, occupies a central 
role in energy metabolism, as it is the main feed-in to the Krebs 
tricarboxylic acid cycle, a metabolic process that with each turn of the 
cycle converts a moleculeof acetic acid to water, carbon dioxide, and free 
electrons (which the respiratory chain uses to reduce free oxygen to water, 
recovering the energy as ATP).  Acetyl coenzyme A is also the route by 
which carbons are added to fatty acid molecules.  So, yes, acetic acid is 
on the direct path to fat formation (and also fat burning).

--PSW

    RE: .20
    
Not at all.  I've done some experimenting with pad thai, and found that
2 T for 2 (large!) servings is just the taste I like.

    1 Tablespoons/serving?   Uggg!  
    
    I stand corrected.  All the people I have cooked for have a much lower
    tolerance for fish sauce than you.
    
>I monitor my fat intake closely.  A Tablespoon of oil is about 15 grams, or
>almost 140 calories worth of fat.  That is my whole day's allotment of
>added fat.  Add to that the fat necessary for frying the noodles (about
>1/2 T, I've found) and the fat in the egg and the peanuts, it can get
>pretty substantial.

    My only point was is that you're probably better off going after things
    that are mostly fat to start with.  The oil is the obvious first
    choice, and as much as I hate to say it - lose the peanuts.  As I said
    before, fish sauce tends to be mostly water.
    
    
    				-David

    Re; .31
    Gosh you're so clever,I wish I knew as much as you.
    Panting with envy,
    Geoff.

        The oil is the obvious first
        choice, and as much as I hate to say it - lose the peanuts.
    
    Hey, I know how to cut down fat, really.  I'm not going to remove the
    peanuts from Pad Thai - I'd rather not have it at all.  I know
    *exactly* how much fat is in peanuts, and that's why I have Pad Thai
    only occasionally and not every day (which I would!)
    
    My method of cutting fat down is to leave in the things that I love,
    cut that fat that is not "necessary" (such as a lot of oil), and then
    base how often I eat the dish on how fatty it is after that level of
    fat reduction.
    
    Okay?  Can people stop giving me tips on my diet and just stick to
    facks like whether or not fish sauce does or does not have fat in it?
    
    Thank you!
    
    D! who has succeeded in losing and keeping off 40 lb and knows quite
       well how to monitor her fat, calories and nutrition

RE: .31

I happen to know that stuff because I got a degree in Biology, before I 
repented and became a computer dweeb.  :-)

--PSW

re .35

>I happen to know that stuff because I got a degree in Biology, before I 
>repented and became a computer dweeb.  :-)

Could be even weirder... I got 3/4 of a degree in Music Theory before *I*
became a computer dweeb! :-) :-)

-Hal

re: .34

>    My method of cutting fat down is to leave in the things that I love,
>    cut that fat that is not "necessary" (such as a lot of oil), and then
>    base how often I eat the dish on how fatty it is after that level of
>    fat reduction.
    
That's an eminently sensible plan, in my opinion.  Life's way too short
to discard tasty food.  On the other hand, one doesn't want life to be
*too* short. :-)

-Hal

    I got kicked out of the scouts before they even considered me for 
    a dweeb by heck! Ecky thump 'n all, lob 'im another googly.
    Geoff
    Ps Whats a dweeb?Sounds like a the results of a stomach disorder.
    Whatever it is I probably am one.Oh well. 
    

    one of the early DBMS and Rdb project leaders was a music major.
    
    Maybe that's why Rdb really hummms.
    
    ed

    a dweeb is someone who gets satisfaction out of playing with gadgets
    regardless of such things as laws of diminishing returns.  Like, with
    cycling it would be someone who not only replaces his treaded tires
    with smooth ones, straight guage spokes with butted or aero versions,
    round seatpost with an aero seatpost, various nuts and bolts with
    lighter versions, etc, but attempts to measure the miniscule improvements
    attributable to each incremental change.
    
    No, I don't know anyone who would do that.  :-)
    
    ed

    RE: .34
    
    A little too much caffiene this morning?
    
    :^)
    
    
    				-David

    no recipe, but a newly opened Thai restaurant in Shrewsbury has
    vegetarian/vegan pad thai that is very good.  They have an entire page
    devoted to vegetarian dishes, mostly all of which are vegan.
    
    They are located just after Spag's, off route 9.  If you know where
    Spags is - you can cut through the Spag's parking lot and you end up in
    front of the restaurant.
    
    I don't have the exact name or street address, sorry.  Just ate there
    last Sunday night and it was very good, not too expensive and the
    fellow was very aware of vegetarian requirements...
    
    Gita