I'm obsessed with Thai food and really hot Woks.
Have you ever tried Thai food?
Thai curry? The red, yellow, green, panang or massaman? How about Holy Basil Rice, Cashew Nut Chicken, Sticky Rice with Mango (OMG), Green Papaya Salad?
Ok, ok...how about Pad Thai? So many people love Pad Thai, but unfortunately I'd bet my best brownie recipe that 90% of them have never really tried the real thing.
North Americans have sadly butchered Pad Thai. You can even tell by looking at it.
Pad Thai should not be red. That's the sign of a fake one. It should never contain tomato, ketchup, chili sauce, chili paste or curry paste. It also should not contain any sort of bell pepper, such as the red or green variety.
No No No. NO.
Pad Thai is simple, but it's so well balanced. It's delicious. I learned how to make it in Thailand. See?
Rule #2 - it must contain bean sprouts and garlic chives or green onions.
Rule #3 - it must be served with lime, chili flakes and ground peanuts.
I know, that's a lot of rules. But creating good authentic food needs order. Order that's not in the sequence of 1, 3, 2, which is how I originally laid out the rules in this post. Oops.
Palm sugar is typically sold in dry, puck form. I use coconut palm sugar and it has a very tart and somewhat floral sweetness, similar to honey. It's totally worth searching for, but if you can't find it, you can replace it with 1 tablespoon of amber honey. I'll let that slide.
The dried shrimps are also optional. I understand that some people might not like them, and so I can let that one go too since the fish sauce kinda makes up for it. They do add extra meatiness and umami, though.
The pickled radish, well that's one of my favourite parts, but unfortunately they're terribly difficult to find in NA, so we'll have to part with them.
So are we all clear now?
Cool.
Let's make Pad Thai.
OH! And, you need a wok! A really good one that gets very hot! It makes all the difference in the flavour of Thai cooking.
I received this Carbon Steel wok from CSN Stores. It's by Taylor & NG and it works very nicely!
It comes with a factory coating to prevent rusting during shipment, and that takes a bit of elbow grease and flame to remove. But once you've got that under your belt, it needs a couple of seasonings with neutral cooking oil and you're all aces.
It becomes non-stick after only 3 seasonings and it heats up super fast.
I'm very pleased with it and can't wait to make many, many more Thai dishes in it. If you've never cooked with a wok, don't fret because this one comes with everything you need, including a dome cover, a pair of chopsticks, bamboo spatula, stainless steel spatula and a steaming/frying rack.
You're all set!
Like you, I LOVE Thai food and I love Pad Thai (my favourite is Tom Kha soup). I really like your authentic recipe :) I cannot wait to give this a try.
ReplyDelete@Michael Toa If you love Thai food, then I promise you'll love this Michael!
ReplyDeleteI love that you make pad thai, my husbands family is thai and I am lucky enough to have authentic thai food on a regular basis. I'm with you on papaya salad, that is my absolute favorite! We get palm sugar in a plastic container instead of a puck - I find it so much easier to use that way! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Hope to see you back!
ReplyDelete@Caroline@Engineer and an Oven
ReplyDeleteOh that's lovely! You are very lucky to have such easy access to great Thai food.
hi Christina
ReplyDeleteyour pad thai looks delicious!! Now I know you weren't outside cooking it this month.....we just had 18 inches of snow in Philly....sigh....I can't wait to Barbecue
Cheers
Dennis
Ciao Bella!!!
ReplyDeleteรจ stupendo questo blog,complimenti!!! ;-)
Kisses*
Well done, that looks great! I've never attempted this dish at home, but maybe I should :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is great, I'll be sure to make this later. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part?
ReplyDeleteThe picture of the chef holding the cleaver. Ow, ow!
Thank you for the blog. Trying to make a really yummy pad thai seems to be difficult for me. Going to try again tonight!
:)
Go for it! I'm sure you'll love it.
Deletenice
ReplyDelete