Modernish Pad Thai

In the past, whenever I would make Pad Thai or any stir fried noodles for that matter, I would always find that it was really hard to incorporate the meats and vegetables fully into the noodles and would end up with really plain noodles with all of the good stuff at the bottom. Instead of struggling to fully incorporate everything together, I have decided to plat up the Pad Thai in a different style. This is why I refer to this as modernish because it is all of the traditional flavors and ingredients, they are all cooked in the proper fashion, but, for lack of a less gimmicky term, deconstructed.

The three things I do differently from the traditional fashion are, instead of dicing the vegetables incorporated into the, I julienne them, making them the same shape and size as the noodles, making them easier to incorporate, I cook the meat separate from the noodles and top the noodles with it and, just for the fun of it, I fry the egg sunny side up and place it on top instead of scrambling it into the mixture. What is left is a pad thai that is easier to make, while still using traditional technique and flavors, and one that looks like a piece of art, the quality of art, you be the judge...

First step is to make the sauce, this recipe makes about 1 1/4 cup of sauce which is enough for four recipes of pad thai, so you can make it in bulk and save it, refrigerated for about a month or frozen for a very long time. Some of the ingredients can be hard to find, luckily I have an asian grocery store that is about a 5 minuet walk from my apartment.

4 tablespoons of compacted tamarind paste

1 1/2 cup of water

3/4 cup of palm sugar, brown sugar is a really close sub

1/2 cup of fish sauce

1 more cup of water

Add the tamarind paste into a medium sauce pan with the 1 1/2 cup of water, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minuets

Strain the mixture in a fine sieve and press down on the pulp, that is where a lot of the flavor is concentrated. The resulting juice should look something like this.

Put that juice pack in the sauce pan along with the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 40 minuets, until at a syrupy consistency.

To get an idea of how much it should be reduced, this is all of the sauce in a 2 cup container

4 notes

1. Keep in mind, a main ingredient is fish sauce, which is concentrated fermented anchovi juice, so for about 20 minuets while the sauce is cooking, it will smell pretty rachet, I opened a window to ease the smell, so be warned.

2. My palm sugar did not come in a granulated form, it came in a 12 ounce package in 4 large chunks, in this case, 3/4 of the package would be 3/4 of a cup.

3. If tamarind is unavailable, replace it with 3/4 cup of pomegranate juice mixed with 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice.

4. For a vegan version, soy sauce can be substitute the fish sauce.

The stir fry:

1/3 pound of medium width rice stick noodles or Bahn Pho

Water for cooking

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

3 tablespoons, plus one teaspoon of canola oil, divided

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 bone in, skin on chicken thigh, precooked, skin and bone removed and thinly slice

5 tablespoons of pad thai sauce, divided

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sambal oelek, vietnamese chili paste, some sriracha will work too

3/4 cup of juliened or grated vegetables, carrots, zuchini and broccoli stems work really well

1 cup of alfalfa sprouts, plus more for garnish

1 egg per serving (this recipe makes two servings)

1/4 cup of chopped scallions or chives

1/4 cup of salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off the heat and add in the noodles, let cook for 10-15 minuets, until soft, drain, rinse with cold water and toss with the sesame oil.

In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon of oil on high heat until shimmering, add in the onion and cook until translucent and starts to brown a little bit, add in the chicken (I used a leftover piece from my Spanish chicken recipe) and cook until warmed through

Add in 1 tablespoon of the sauce and cook until to reduces, remove from the skillet and set aside.

Wipe of the skillet, add in 2 tablespoons

of the oil and heat on high, just like before. Add in the garlic and sambal, cook until the garlic just starts to turn brown.

Add in the juliened vegetables, fry until cooked through, about a minuet

Add in the alfalfa sprouts and cook until softened, it takes like 10 seconds

Toss in the noodles and scallions and cook until a color is formed, tossing so all of the ingredients get incorporated, turn off the heat.

Heat the rest of the oil in a small skillet on high heat, add in the egg(s) and reduce the heat to medium low and cook

While the egg is cooking, turn the heat under the noodles to high again and pour in 4 tablespoons of the sauce, let cook for another 2 minuets until reduced and it coats the noodles.

The egg looks done, turn off the heat under that

Time to plate...

What I did was pile some noodles to the side of the bowl, which takes up abotu 3/4 of the bowl and the rest of the bowl is the chicken/onion mixture. Sprinkle over with the peanuts and add on some more alfalfa sprouts.

Crown with the fried egg.

Last note, you can use any meat in here, not just leftover chicken, chicken breast, shrimp or pork, keep in mind when sauteing with the onions that whatever meat it is is cooked through and it will take a little longer, for a vegetarian version, along with using the soy instead of fish sauce, some seared tofu could be used.