Pad Thai
(with apologies to anyone of Thai descent)
It's hot out, I'm on summer vacation and feeling a little lazy. But as I waste time on Pinterest, I see a photo of Pad Thai that was calling my name. I link over to it and peruse the recipe and decide that is what's for dinner tonight.
I most often use a recipe as a reference. I like to start with the basics there and tweek it to suit my taste profile preferences.
For this cold version of the dish I gathered ingredients to make the sauce: sesame oil, dried red pepper flakes, and Citrus Ponzu. Ponzu is a traditional Japanese soy sauce-like condiment and I just love its bright flavor. It's my new favorite thing.
Peanut butter and honey ( We were lucky to have bought honey from a local beekeeper) complete the sauce that will be poured over the cooked rice noodles.
Cook the rice noodles according to the box directions and rinse well.
I also poached a few boneless, skinless chicken breasts to add to the thai.
I don't usually measure precisely, but here is the basic sauce:
1/3 c. sesame oil, warmed
sprinkling of red pepper flakes to taste
6 T. honey
6 T. Ponzu
2 T. peanut butter
Whisk it together until it looks like this:
Pour over the cooked and cooled noodles.
Now for some fresh stuff : carrots, cilantro, green onions, lemon zest, lime zest.
Chop it all up. If you want to be fancier you could shred the carrot.
Chop up a couple of handfuls of dry roasted peanuts. I prefer the low salt kind, but you could substitute the no salt variety.
Dice or shred the cooked and cooled chicken breasts.
Here you can see the proportions I used since I don't measure. Next time I'd probably use more cilantro, just because I love that flavor.
Toss in some sesame seeds if you wish. They'd probably be better toasted, but I just didn't feel like doing it today.
Toss it all up. I love those hand-like tossers my sister in law gave me! It's best if served immediately. A day later I wasn't as big of a fan of the texture of the noodles.
We enjoyed the variety of textures: the crunch of the the fresh vegetables and chopped peanuts was a nice contrast to the silkiness of the noodles. Heat from the red peppers, the tanginess of the Ponzu, the sweetness of the carrots, and silkiness of the peanut butter all blended together well. Give it a try and let me know how you liked it.
And now for the "best song in Thailand".
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Comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrD14GreZ4k&feature=related
Myriad- The song just cracked me up and now I can't get it out of my head.
bobbot: Next time I make it I'll use more cilantro and a bit more red pepper.
An excellent work on such a difficult, but still,great recipe.
Seems hard to me, but worths the effort!! Thank you.
YUMMM
HUGGGGGGGG
The Pad Thai looks mouthwatering
Lezlie
Spudman: Thanks for stopping in. The song is so kitschy--is that a word?
Tink: I think it might be a regula in my repetoire.