michelle picker cooks

This popular Thai street food has become a quintessential part of Thai cuisine. Rice noodles are typically stir-fried with prawns (shrimp), eggs, spring onions (scallions) and bean sprouts. My go to recipe is from RecipeTinEats – I change the proteins and vegetables depending on what’s in my fridge.

To prepare the pad thai noodles follow the instructions on the pack you buy. You will need 125 g (4oz) of rice sticks that are not too wide. To make the sauce combine 1½ tablespoons of tamarind puree (if you use concentrate try 2 teaspoons), 3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce and 1½ tablespoons of oyster sauce. Taste and make sure you have a good balance of salt, sweet and sour. Now prepare your ingredients. I used medium prawns (shrimp) which I cut in half lengthwise and tofu puffs which I sliced into batons. Cut any vegetables into long or baton shapes – I used carrots, red and green pepper (capsicum) and spring onions (scallions). Finely dice 2-3 cloves of garlic and a similar amount of fresh ginger. For serving roughly chop a generous amount of coriander (cilantro). Instead of including chilli, I like to top my pad thai with a mixture of crushed peanuts and hot Thai chilllies – I slice the chillies and chop them with roasted unsalted peanuts in a mini food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, finely slice the chillies and crush the peanuts with a mortar and pestle and combine them. And lastly, lime wedges. To cook, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok until very hot. Add the noodles and fry them until you see a little char. Toss a few of the spring onions through for flavour and remove the noodles to a bowl. Heat some more oil and add the carrots and peppers and cook for a few minutes before adding the garlic and ginger. Cook briefly before adding the prawns and tofu. When everything is nearly cooked add the spring onions. Return the noodles to the wok, add the sauce and toss everything together until well mixed and the sauce is absorbed. Remove from the heat and distribute the coriander, peanuts and chillies over the top. Top with lime wedges so you can squeeze lime juice over your serve to taste.