Pad Thai Noodles

It seems that I'm in a bit of a Thai phase right now. I promise there will be more variety to this blog. It's just that lately, most of the ingredients in my fridge just so happens to be great for making Thai food. Or rather, I just have a bunch of left over stuff like tamarind soup base that I need to get rid of.

So I made Pad Thai today. It's not necessarily a hard thing to make but it's a bit tricky to get it right with the noodle part. I personally screwed it up a little bit while making it today but I'm writing about it so you can learn from my mistake.

1/2 tsp ground chili pepper (I just used pepper flakes b/c that's what I had in my cupboard)

1 egg

4 tsp fish sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp tamarind

1/2 package of Thai flat rice noodle

1/3 cup extra firm tofu (cut into strips)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 minced shallot

2 cups bean sprout

lime wedges (optional)

chopped roasted peanuts (optional)

julienne green onions and carrots for garnish

1) Soak noodles in warm water for about 30 minutes. This is the part where it gets tricky. You want the noodles to be soft and pliable but not soggy and expanded. If there's such a thing as al dente for rice noodles, this is how you want your noodles. When in doubt, under soak it. If nothing else you can always add water to the noodles while you're cooking it to soften it but you can't undo the softening of noodles. When I made it, I way under soaked the noodles for fear of soggy noodles and I ended up standing at the stove stir frying the noodles for forever. Yeah, not fun.

2) Heat up the vegetable oil in a wok and when hot, put in shallots, garlic and the tofu. Stir fry until the tofu is gold brown. ( If you feel you need some meat in this dish, this is a good time to throw in some shrimp, sliced chicken or pork into the wok.)

3) Drain the noodles and put it into the wok and stir quickly to keep from sticking. Add in fish sauce, tamarind, sugar and chili pepper flakes. And a little tip about the tamarind. I just used the filipino sinigang tamarind soup base. You can find it at any 99 Ranch store. It tastes exactly the same if not better.

4) Once the noodles are cooked, put the noodles aside in the wok and make room for the egg. Scramble it really quickly and mix it back in with the noodles. Add in 1 cup of the bean sprouts. Give it a few more stirs and you're done.

You can serve it with a wedge of lime, a sprinkle of dry roasted peanuts and some raw bean sprouts on top. I personally like my bean sprouts cooked so I just dump them all into the noodles while they're still in the wok. To each his own so do what you like. Hopefully you guys give this recipe a try because the tangy-ness of the tamarind is perfect for the summer heat. Goes great with a glass of beer or ice cold lemonade. Enjoy~!

Thai Ground Pork Salad (Laab)

Today I made one of my favorite Thai dish of all times, Laab. It's basically a ground pork salad, eaten hot or cold, seasoned and flavored with fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro and chilies. The secret to making this dish taste like you just took a trip to Thailand is the ground toasted rice powder. This is one of my favorite Thai dish because it's sour, it's salty and it's got a bit of that slight crunch from the toasted rice and shallots. I used to eat this all the time when I was in Thailand. It's one of those dishes that kind of define your childhood.

Okay, I might br getting a little carried away with this whole defining my childhood thing, and it's a bit cheesy. Pretty much any Thai food reminds me of my childhood and I'm just super stoked that I found the recipe for Laab and it's simple enough that I can make at home without much fuss.

Today I make ground pork Laab but you can substitute ground pork for ground turkey, chicken or even ground beef. If you're going to be using chicken or turkey, I would suggest sauteing them with a bit of oil since they are a bit leaner than pork or beef. This recipe calls for cooking the ground meat in just a bit of water and I've tried that technique with ground chicken and it does get a bit dry.

Here are the ingredients that you would need to make this dish.

1 pound ground pork

1/4 tablespoon ground dried chili pepper or crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

3 tablespoon fish sauce

4 limes juiced

1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots

1-2 tablespoon toasted rice

chopped green onion and cilantro for garnish

You start by toasting the rice. Set a nonstick pan on medium high heat with the rice in it. You need to stick around the pan to make sure the rice doesn't burn because it happens really fast. It'll take about 5 minutes for the rice to toast. Make sure to keep stirring the rice until it is a nice gold brown.

Once it gets that golden brown color, immediately take it off the stove and transfer it to a mortar. If you don't have a mortar, go ahead and ground the toasted rice in coffee grinder, food processor or a blender. Any one of those would do the trick. I like my mortar because come on, how often do you get to use one of those things? That and it's a great way to take out your frustrations.

I love my little mini mortar that I stole from my mom's house.

Now that your rice is toasted and the shallots and cilantro chopped take half a lime and squeeze the juice to marinate the ground pork a few minutes before cooking. Make sure the juice is mixed in well with the pork.

Heat up the pan until it is super hot and then add in 2 tablespoon of water. Immediately add in the ground pork and stir, making sure that the pork doesn't stick to the pan. Cook until the meat is well done and most of the moisture from the meat has evaporated. Put the ground pork into a mixing bowl. Now add in the juice of the remaining limes, chopped shallots, cilantro, chili powder and half of the toasted rice. Mix everything together and taste. Depending on your preferences, you might want to add more fish sauce, chili powder or maybe even more lime. I personally love love, love sour food so I actually add about 6 limes into my Laab.

Go ahead and arrange the Laab on a bed of lettuce or just eat it as is. Garnish it with some cilantro and the rest of the toasted rice and you're all set.

And there you have it~! This dish is great. If you're not one for giving up meat with your salad, you can eat this by the bucketful. It's only fat is from the ground pork itself since we cooked it with water instead of oil. And in my opinion, this is probably a lot better than all the oil that goes into your caesar salad dressing. Definitely give this dish a try and if you do, be sure to let me know how you like it~!