Pad Thai

I have been fiddling with this recipe for the last month or so. Last night I made it for the third time and in my humble opinion, it's turned out the best!! I get so darned excited when a recipe does what I want it to do. :-)

So... here's my rendition of Pad Thai that has been adapted from Lucinda Scala Quinn's recipe on Mad Hungry:

• 1/2 pkg (8 oz) medium width rice noodles

Soak noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are softening up and if not, heat up water for a few minutes to get the noodles softer. Noodles should be ready at the same time the stir frying is done.

Sauce:

• 12 oz can tamarind juice
• 1 oz tamarind (optional)
• 1/3 c soy sauce - low sodium is fine
• 1/3 + 1 T palm sugar
• 1/2 c fish sauce
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tsp Sriracha

In a small saucepan, combine sauce ingredients above and bring to a boil, stirring frequently until sugar is dissolved. If you have seedless tamarind, add a bit of that to bump up the flavor. I have seedless tamarind that has seeds in it. Remove the seeds the best you can. If any are left, you can always strain the sauce when it's done before you add it to the wok.

Stir Fry:

• 1/2 c peanut oil (or safflower if you have it)
• 2 lg scallions, cut into 1" pieces, separate bulbs from the rest
• 1 T garlic in olive oil
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined (and/or chicken, if using both get 1/2 of each)
• 1 block firm tofu, sliced thin (if your grocer has fresh tofu, it would be 1 piece, otherwise it's about 1/2 a container)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. When little bubbles form or the oil shimmers, add scallion bulbs and stir for about 1 minute. Add garlic in olive oil, stirring frequently until the garlic is brown. Remove and place on a large plate that is lined with a paper towel. This will soak up any excess oil.

Raise heat to high and add in remaining scallions and shrimp. Stir constantly until shrimp are opaque, about 2-3 minutes. Remove and place with other ingredients on plate.

Add tofu to wok, heating through about another 2 minutes. Remove and place on plate.

At this point, there should be very little oil left in the wok, if there is too much (even a small puddle), pour some out. Add the eggs to the wok and stir constantly to keep them light and fluffy. As soon as they are set, but not dry (they should be a little wet looking), remove them to the plate.

Add the sauce to the wok and bring to a boil. Strain the noodles and cook in the sauce until heated through, just a couple of minutes. Return the items from the plate into the wok and stir to combine about 3 minutes. You want everything nicely combined and hot. Place pad thai into a dish and serve immediately with your garnish items. YUM!

**Note: Add about 1/2 the cilantro, mung beans, and peanuts and combine well. Heating the garnish ingredients with the mixture gives it a bit more flavor. It sure makes your house smell yummy!

Garnish:

• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 1 bunch cilantro, remove leaves from stems
•  mung bean sprouts
• 1/2 c peanuts, processed in chopper
• Sriracha sauce

I'm sure I will fuss with this a bit more even though I totally love it! Just to see if I can make it even better. I took a movie of me doing this, but I need to edit it out some to make it shorter and you don't need to see food frying, right? If it doesn't turn out well and if I can't do anything with it, pictures it will be! At least until I can figure out how to edit and whatever else needs to be done so you all can see this!

I just had to share out dessert tonight as well. My Mom and I were in Sam's Club this afternoon and they were taste-testing this pie. It was too good! So, I bought it. For $10, you can't make it that cheap! It has Granny Smith apples, cranberries, and pecans. All together now... big Y-U-M-M-O!!!