This is the dish that I make better then anything else. Ever since I had the Pad Thai at the Queen Mum in Toronto, Pad Thai has been my favorite dish. Every time I go to a new Thai restaurant (and that’s pretty often), I try the Pad Thai. Queen Mum’s is still the best and this recipe is the closest I have found. And now you can have the recipe too.

I recently showed EAnimal how to make this, so I thought I’d share it with everybody.

This is a vegetarian version. You can, of course, substitute some carnivorous substance like shrimp or chicken for the tofu. You can also use 1/4 cup fish sauce in place of the soy sauces if you want.

Pad Thai

Ingredients
½ lb dry rice noodles 1/8 inch wide

½ lb extra firm tofu

1/8 cup sweet soy sauce
1/8 cup soy sauce
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 ½ tsp sambal olek (chili paste)
(or 1 tablespoon ketchup or tomato paste and 1 tsp paprika)

4 green onions

½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

2 eggs

¾ lb bean sprouts
¾ cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly ground (you can use a plastic baggie and a hammer to do this)
Lime wedges

Instructions
1. Put noodles in a large bowl and cover with warm water. Soak 20 – 30 minutes. (Or follow the directions on the noodle package.) They should be flexible and soft, but not soft enough to be mashed with your fingers. You are going to cook them some more. Drain them in a Colander.
2. Meanwhile, place the tofu on top of several layers of paper towel on a cutting board and cover with several more layers of paper towel. Cover the the paper towel with saran wrap and place a heavy book (or anything else that weighs a pound or so) on top of that. This presses the excess water out of the tofu. Press this for 20-30 minutes.
3. Mix the sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sambal olek in a bowl. Stir until well blended.
4. Slice the green onions (white and green parts) into 1 inch pieces.
5. Cube the tofu.
6. Heat about ½ the oil in a wok.
7. Put the tofu and garlic in the wok and fry until golden brown. Throw in some sambal or your favorite sauce if you want to flavor the tofu. Remove from pan.
8. Add the rest of the oil into the wok.
9. Put the noodle in the wok and coat with oil.
10. Add the soy sauce mixture into the wok and bring to a boil, while gently folding the noodles. Lower the heat a bit and keep the liquid boiling while frequently folding the noodles. Try not to break the noodles.
11. When almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the noodles, use a spatula to lift the noodles and pour some oil under them, break an egg and slip it into the oil. Repeat this process with the other egg on the other side of the wok.
12. Allow the eggs to cook until they are set.
13. Fold the eggs into the noodles by placing a spatula under the eggs and lifting gently. Again, try not to break the noodles.
14. Put in the tofu and stir.
15. Put the green onions into the wok and cook for 2 minutes while still gently folding the noodles.
16. Put the noodles into a serving dish, garnish with bean sprouts, peanuts and lime, or serve them separately.

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 1:52 am and is filed under All, Food, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.