Simple Pad Thai Recipe

Pad Thai is a popular dish from Thailand cooked using rice noodles. It is one of the simplest and easiest Thai dishes to make and is often found sold by street food vendors in Thailand. With the basics of the dish involving egg-fried rice noodles with tofu, fish or meat, this tends to be a cheap yet tasty meal, coming in at an equivalent of under £1 in Thailand.

While Pad Thai is one of the countries best-known dishes, its origins do not date too far back, with the noodles emerging in the early 1930s when the prime minister of that time held a contest in search of a new national noodle dish! Despite the name, and its contest winning past, Pad Thai noodles are not actually cooked in a way, or include ingredients, that were typically used by Thai people. The type of noodle required for the recipe shares more similarities with those used for the Vietnamese dish Pho, whereas the egg-frying aspect is akin to the technique used for frying in Chinese cuisine.

There is also a scientific reason behind why so many people love these noodles, as it has been proven to hit all of the flavour profiles; salty, spicy, bitter, sweet and sour. When making Pad Thai, it is essential to use a large pan, with a big surface area, as this will promote evaporation! If you would like to try and make your own Pad Thai, you will need:

225g medium rice noodles

110g chicken, chopped into small pieces

110g shrimp, chopped into small pieces

3 tbsp tamarind paste

3 tbsp fish paste

3 tbsp chicken stock

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 spring onions, chopped

2 eggs, beaten

100g beansprouts

25g peanuts, chopped

Method:

1. Soften the noodles by placing them in a large bowl and covering them with hot water. Leave them to stand for around ten minutes before rinsing them with cold water and then draining.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the fish paste, tamarind paste, stock and sugar.
3. Heat up a wok, with a tablespoon full of oil, to a medium-high heat. Add the beaten eggs to the pan and cook them until they begin to solidify, then gently mix them so that they break up into small pieces. Place the egg mixture aside in a bowl or on a plate.
4. Pour more oil into the wok and add the chicken, shrimp and garlic once it has heated up. Stir fry for around three minutes until the meat has cooked. Add in the noodles and the pastes mixture and continue stir-frying for around two minutes.
5. When the noodles are almost ready to serve, toss in the bean sprouts and the cooked egg.
6. Once dished up, sprinkle the spring onions and peanuts on top and serve!

If you need authentic oriental rice noodles to make this recipe, then check out the extensive range available online at Oriental Mart!