Tamarind Water

Sometimes called Tamarind purée. To make this soak a ping-pong ball sized piece of Tamarind pulp (with all it's seeds) in 120ml of hot water, or 3 tbsp in 225ml of hot water, until soft.Squeeze the pulp repeatedly with your fingers to dissolve it and then pour the lot into a strainer, forcing the liquid through with the back of a spoon. Discard the fibrous material and just use the thick liquid.



It's a right palaver but worth the effort for the taste it adds. But because it takes some effort, I tend to make up a whole 'brick' of the stuff in one go and use ice-cube freezer bags to store the surplus in the freezer for later.

Phad Thai recipe

This Phad Thai (Phat Thai) recipe comes from one of my favourite books on asian cooking. It's South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden. Elizabeth David, no less, is quoted as saying that it's "a book every serious cook should possess". A great recommendation.



The particular version in Brissenden's book is Sen Chan Phat Thai which owes it's name to the use of Chantaburi Noodles, but she suggests using Thai sen lek noodles, available as A Grade Banh Pho imported from Thailand and available in Asian speciality food shops. Noodles, either in soup or fried are the standard lunch dish of urban Thailand. Most are close to the Chinese prototypes from which they are derived. Phat Thai (Padh Thai) however, contains flavours that are characteristically Thai.


Ingredients
250g (9oz) narrow dried rice noodles
4 cloves of garlic
5 tbsp vegetable oil
4 large raw prawns, shelled de-veined but tails left on
3 shallots
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
100g (3 and a half oz) hard white beancurd, cut into very small dice
2 eggs
2 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp tamarind water
2 tbsp dried shrimp washed well and then ground
2 cups beansprouts, tailed and washed
half cup of Chinese leeks or garlic chives cut into 2.5cm / 1inch pieces
half a cup of roasted peanuts, very roughly ground.

Garnish
about 20 leaves of Indian or Asian Pennywort (bua bok; Centella Asiatica) oe 1-2 leaves of slightly bitter lettuce such as Italian endive or tree lettuce or mignonette lettuce.
half a cup of beansprouts
a few spring onion/scallion curls
half a cup of roasted and very roughly ground peanuts.
1 lime cut into wedges the Thai way.

As with most stir fried food you need to have all your ingredients prepared first. This fast paced cooking method doesn't allow for mid-term preparation. So have all your ingredients in separate little bowls arranged around the cooking area.

Soak the noodles in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly then cut into manageable lengths with scissors (about 3 cuts across should be enough). Smash and chop 1 clove of garlic, heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok on medium heat and fry until yellow. Add the fresh prawns and stir-fry unti they are cooked. Remove and keep warm. In a mortar or food processor attachment mash the rest of the garlic, the shallots and the chilli flakes into a fine paste.

From this point on the cooking will be more easily done in two batches in order to allow plenty of room in the wok for tossing.

Add two more tablespoons of oil to the wok and when it is hot put in half the garlic, chilli and shallot paste and stir-fry, turning constantly to avoid sticking and to ensure everything is well mixed and oiled. Push the noodles to one side of the wok. Add a little more oil if necessary, add half the beancurd and stir-fry for a minute. Push this aside in the pan also. Break one egg into the wok and pierce its yolk. When the egg starts to set on the bottom, stir and scramble it lightly with the edge of the spatula. return the noodles and the beancurd to the centre of the pan and continue stirring until everything is mixed together well.

Turning the heat down a little, add half the fish sauce, sugar and tamarind water and toss everything together until the sugar has dissolved. Add the dried shrimp, 1 cup of beansprouts and half of the chinese leaks. Taste and adjust the flavours to your liking then turn off the heat and stir in half a cup of the roasted peanuts.

Place in a bowl and keep aside while you cook a second batch. After doing this add the first batch to the pan for a final stir and warming, then dish everything up on to one side of a serving platter. Arrange the prawns on top or on the outer edge. Arrange the pennywort or bitter lettuce leaves, a handful of washed beansprouts, a few spring onion curls and the remainder of the roughly ground peanuts decoratively in separate mounds on the other side of the dish. Add attractively cut wedges of lime for individual diners to squeeze over the noodles to their taste and have on the table a bowl of fish sauce with finley sliced rounds of small red chillies in it (Nam Pla Phrik), one of the chilli flakes (Phrik Pon) and one of white sugar so that each person amy adjust the seasoning as desired.

Authentic Pad Thai recipe

Pad Thai (often spelt Phad rather than Pad). We've tried both these authentic Pad Thai recipes with good results. The flavour of Pad Thai is one of the most evocative in Thai cuisine giving it some claim to be the national dish and not just because 'Thai' is in the title. Taking only minutes to prepare – fast food never tasted better.

Our first Pad Thai recipe, a dried shrimp recipe, comes from Vatcharin Bhumichitr's excellent 'Taste of Thailand'. The next from Sisamon Kongpan's 'Best of Thai Cuisine'. More recipes from these masters of Thai cuisine can be found in The Elegant Taste of Thailand... and Vatch's Thai Street Food.



Recipe 1 Pad Thai recipe (shrimp)
This Pad Thai recipe needs:

4 tbs/60ml oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 egg

4 oz/120g dry Sen Lek noodles (a medium fat noodle approximately 2mm wide) soaked in water for 20minutes. (This is the Thai name but any medium flat noodle will work in this Pad Thai recipe.)

2 tbs /30ml lemon juice

1.5 tbs/22.5ml fish sauce

0.5 tsp/2.5ml sugar

2 tbs/30ml chopped roast peanuts

2 tbs/30ml dried shrimp, ground or pounded

0.5 tsp/2.5ml chilli powder

1 tbs/15ml finely chopped preserved turnip

1oz/30g beansprouts

2 spring onions/scallions, chopped into1in/2.5cm pieces

Sprig of coriander leaf, chopped

Lime wedges

In a wok, heat the oil, add the garlic, fry until golden brown. Break the egg into the wok, stir and quickly cook for a couple of seconds. Add noodles and stir, mixing well with the garlic and egg. One by one, add lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar, half the peanuts, half the dried shrimp, the chilli powder, preserved turnip, 1 tablespoon of beansprouts and the spring onions. Test noodles for tenderness. When done, serve arranging the remaining peanuts, dried shrimp and beansprouts around the dish. Garnish with coriander and lime wedges.

(The Pad Thai recipe from Vatcherin calls for Lemon wedges. I prefer limes in the recipe.)

Makes enough Pad Thai for a meal for one, or part of a meal for two.



Recipe 2 Pad Thai recipe (pork)
This Pad Thai recipe needs:

300g Sen Lek noodles (see description in Pad Thai recipe above)

0.5kg bean sprouts

3 eggs

50g pork cut into small slivers

50g chopped pickled white radish

1 cake soybean curd, cut into small slivers

0.5 cup ground roasted peanuts

1tsp ground dried chillies

1tbsp chopped shallots

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic

0.5 cup cooking oil

4 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

4 tbsp tamarind juice or vinegar

50g Chinese leek leaves

1 lime

1 banana flower

Indian pennywort leaves

Indian Pennywort leaves are optional. This authentic Pad Thai recipe calls for them but they are not essential.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok and saute garlic and shallots. When yellowed, add noodles with just enough water to soften them and fry, turning constantly with spatula to prevent sticking. Remove noodles and set aside.

Put 3 tbsp oil into pan. When hot fry the pork, pickled white radish, bean curd and dried chillies, then return the noodles, mix thoroughly, remove and set aside.

Put 2 tbsp oil into pan. When heated, break the eggs into the pan and spread the egg in a thin layer over the pan. When set, return the noodles and mix together. Add half the bean sprouts and the Chinese leek leaves and turn to mix together. Serve with ground peanuts, beansprouts, banana flower, Chinese leek, Indian pennywort and lime wedges.

(Original Pad Thai recipe from Sisamon uses lemon wedges. I prefer limes in the recipe.)

This Pad Thai recipe uses a lot more oil than Vatcherin's recipe; however it is possible to use less than indicated above by adding small amounts from time to time instead of adding the oil oil in one go; just enough to keep the Pad Thai from sticking,

This recipe makes enough Pad Thai for a meal for two.

For more recipes follow the cookery link below.