I was lucky enough to visit the beautiful country of Thailand two years ago. There are many wonderful things I could reminisce about : the hospitable people, the sunshine, the warm seas, the lush, tropical landscape and of course, the food. As I wrote about here, the food of Thailand was exactly what you would expect it to be: a much better version of what it is outside the country. This was true for almost every dish, except one: Pad Thai.
It wasn't that it was bad, or even in any way less delicious than the version you get from any Thai restaurant, it was just that it wasn't any better. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe a less gloopy sauce, perhaps void of the addition of ketchup so often used, or maybe a saltier, sweeter and more zingy dressing. Perhaps I imagined that the noodles would be meatier and not the rice noodles that are commonly used. What I obviously failed to understand was two fold. Firstly; that Pad Thai is what it is (a thick sauced and chewy noodle dish) and secondly, Thai restaurants all over the world seem to be fairly consistent in doing justice to this wonderful food. Of course, as an extra bonus, this means that creating a restaurant worthy version at home does not lie in the realms of the impossible. There is no mystical recipe to attain and so many different versions are offered, yours will be very acceptable.
Usually full of prawns, tofu and vegetables, here's mine, an easy version, made from a curry sauce packet mix and some extras.
Recipe : Pad Thai with pork shoulder. (Prawns are more usual, of course, but this is a variation)
1 packet of red, yellow or green curry paste (many varieties are available, including Mae Ploy, Namjai and Lobo)
1 tin of coconut milk, not shaken
1/2 lb diced pork shoulder
6 mushrooms, quartered
1 small tin bamboo shoots
a handful of mixed greens such as spinach and kale
1/2 mango, diced
1/2 tin plum tomatoes
1.5 tbsp fish sauce
juice of one lime
2 - 3 tsp of palm sugar
a handful of mixed cashews and pistachios
2 tsp Thai basil in chili sauce (optional)
2 tsp dried fried onions
a handful of fried pork rinds
1 bundle of flat rice noodles
2 tsp extra of Thai curry paste mix, (optional)
Carefully open the tin of coconut milk, spoon off all the cream from the top and place in a large pan over medium heat. Add the entire packet of curry paste and stir well. Keep stirring and heating through until well mixed and you can begin to see oil rising to the top.
Add the pork, stir fry through the sauce until beginning to colour and then add the remaining coconut water from the can along with 1/2 cup water. Stir well, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan.
Let cook for about 1 hour, checking and stirring occasionally until the pork is getting tender.
Add the mushrooms, greens, bamboo shoots, mango and tomatoes and continue to cook through until the greens are wilted and the mushrooms cooked.
Taste the curry, adding the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and tweak with more or less of each condiment until you reach a salty, sweet and sour balance to your liking.
You can now eat half of the curry as is, perhaps with some steamed jasmine rice, garnished with the nuts, basil, onions and pork rinds and use the remainder to make your Pad Thai.
To do this, simply reheat the curry until quite thick and fragrant, taste and add extra curry paste if you wish and then add the rice noodles. Cover the pot, stirring frequently until the rice noodles have become soft and almost collapsed into the sauce. Stir very well and serve, again garnished with all the extras and even a hard boiled egg, quartered if you so desire.
A more traditional Pad Thai can be found here
You may also like:
Marinated pork chops with garlic & cahews
Prawn chow mein
Cold shrimp and mango salad
Noodle soup
Prawn cakes
Pink Thai soup & fried rice paper rolls
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