Taylor’s Blog

Pad Thai Recipe

I am pretty good at making Thai curry dishes; I always have loved Pad Thai, but
never knew how to make it.. I have tried about few times and finally have it down.. I thought I would share it with all of you.. It’s really quite simple
and doesn’t require any crazy ingredients you need to get from an asian market.. Everything you need you can get at Harris Teeter or a normal gringo
grocery store..

The only thing you may not have in your kitchen (aside from ingredients) that you need is a wok.. I bought a really inexpensive one
at Target for maybe 15 bucks.. It’s some sorta carbon metal something or other.. It works just fine.. You do have to follow the seasoning directions
though so be sure to do that.. Also you really do need to clean it and season it almost as soon as your done cooking.. I had mine start to rust up on me
when I waited about an hour.. Follow the directions that come with your wok.. Don’t expect to take it home and immeditly start using it. I have seen
non-stick (teflon) woks.. I have no idea what the hell those are.. You want a regular wok that you have to season not some non-stick modified pot that
white people use..

OK so onto the ingredients.. I typically prepare all of the ingredients first then put it all together at the end.. Cooking it
really only takes 10 minutes..

• 8ozThai Rice Stir Fry Noodles – They should come in 8 oz baggies at the grocery
  store
• 2 Tbsp or so of Peanut Oil – You use this in the pan for lubrication. You could likely use any other oil if you wanted but
  I wouldn’t
• 6 Garlic Cloves chopped – Some recipies call for a few cloves minced. I usually use about 6 or so. It’s a lot but
  it’s worth it
• 4 Fresh Hot Peppers Seeded and chopped – I have been using 2 serranos and 2 red hot chillis. You can use what
  you’d like and experiment.
• 10-20 Ounces of Meat / Tofu sliced into small pieces – I usually use chicken anywhere from 3/4 of a
  lb to 1 1/4 works. I haven’t tried beef, and I wouldn’t use pork as its too easy to turn pork into rubber if not cooked just right.. I am sure you can
  use Tofu here if you are not a meat eater but time wise I don’t know what alterations are necessary..
• 3-5 Green Onions
  chopped
• Fish Sauce – You will use just a tiny amount. I little bit goes a LONG way, but I think it is an important
  ingredient
• One Lime Juiced
• 2 tbsp or so of Brown Sugar – You will play with this to get it to your taste
  but about 2 tsbp is what I use
• 2 eggs – I normally pre scramble them in a high ball or similar glass. It makes it easier and
  ensures you don’t fuck up and put egg shell in your food
• Cilantro – Lots of it – I tend to chop up enough that its the size of my
  fist or even more. Go heavy on it
• Some peanuts chopped up – I dunno a few table spoons per person. You add it at the end after
  its all cooked so only chop up what you will use for that meal not the whole serving size if you are going to save some for later

So on
to preparing this awesome meal.. The cooking part usually takes about 10-12 minutes.

1. Take the asian noodles and soak them in hot
   water for at least 10 minutes. I usually do this first while i am cutting all the other ingredients
2. Heat your wok to medium high with a tbsp or
   two of peanut oil in the bottom. Put in all your garlic, peppers, and meat and stir fry it until your meat is cooked most of the way.. This usually takes
   5 minutes or so. Just move the stuff around in the wok every 30 seconds or so.
3. Add the noodles (drain off the water first) and green onion and
   cover the wok for about 2 minutes. I usually just use a cover from a large pot i have. Don’t stir or anything just cover it and leave it alone. I
   typically break up the noodles some with the spoon in my wok first and stir it around a bit. The noodles will get steamed in this step so don’t worry
   about it if they are stuck together a lot they will be easy to separate when this step is done
4. Remove the cover, and pour in the lime juice,
   sugar, and about 2/3 of cilantro. Take your fish oil and shake a bit on there. The container I have lets drops out and I usually shake about 5-10 drops.
   The fish oil will smell sorta gross. it’s OK.. It will start to smell very good in a second. Stir this around for a minute or two until evenly
   mixed.
5. Push the noodles and everything to the side exposing a portion of the bottom of the wok. Pour in your egg here and scramble it. This
   usually takes a minute or two. It’s just like making eggs for breakfast. Don’t worry too much about a piece of meat or something falling into the eggs
   but try and keep the 2 parts separate until the eggs are cooked. Once the eggs are cooked stir the whole concoction together.



6. Put the rest of the cilantro on top along with
   your chopped peanuts and serve.

So I always have loved Thai food.. One of my favorite places to go was in Cary, Thai Villa.. I used to
work close by, and would end up in there about once a week.. i normally got curry dishes, and once in a while would be experimental.. Sheila got this
amazing beef plate there.. It claims on the menu that the beef is “cooked to perfection”, and they are right.. It’s not like Applebees might claim “mouth
watering” or other such crap it was the real deal..

Well now that I have no job, and am just in school (learning awesome things about AC/DC I
never knew) I thought I would really try my hand at Thai cooking.. At least the Curries.. My friend Sara Ward and I were going to try and cook some Thai
goodness a few times when we both still lived in Raleigh, but alas we both moved away and it never happened..

If you like/love/desire/crave any of
the basic Thai curries you should keep reading.. They are easy as fuck to make.. I have been perfecting it over the course of a month or so now.. I was
going to try and make my own curry paste, but well that was WAY to damn much effort.. The key here isn’t to buy the Harris Teeter curry pastes.. Go to the
Asian market.. They have green, red, and panang curry pastes in little cans.. I found them here in Greensboro for 99 cents..

This is the kind I got.. There are no additives or preservatives either..

First I start making
some jasmine rice.. 1/2 cup of rice, 1 cup of water.. Thats usually enough for 2 peoples worth of rice.. It’ cooking rice.. I shouldn’t need to cover
this..

So on to curry.. Take some amount of the curry paste, and mix it with 2 cans of coconut milk.. The harris teeter brand coconut milk is
fine, but you can get it anywhere you want.. It doesn’t seem to vary like the quality of the curry pastes.. Now as far as how much to use that is up to
you.. I followed the recipe on the can and used the whole thing to 2 cans of coconut milk and my mouth was ablaze in pain for 30 minutes afterwards.. 2
tablespoons is pretty wimpy.. I am thinking “2 pepper hot” would be about 1/2 a can.. That’s about where I like it.. You control the spice.. You control
the universe I mean hotness..

Now bring the coconut milk and curry paste to a boil stirring it around in the process.. Then all you have to do is
drop in the ingredients you want.. Let it simmer until the veggies/meats/whatever you added are cooked, and serve over rice..

The curry will serve
4 people, so I always like to have some leftovers for the next day, but just make up fresh rice.. You can half the recipe pretty easily..

Some
combinations I have really enjoyed include:

• Potatoes
• Eggplant
• Chicken
• Basil (just put a ton in there it will
  reduce like Kale or Spinach)
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Snow Peas
• Red/Green Fresh Peppers
• Onion
• Lemon grass

You
get the idea.. If you do put a meat in be sure that you time it so that it gets cooked just right.. Veggies don’t seem to mind some variation in cooking
time, but chicken in my experience goes from perfect to rubber pretty quickly..

Here is what I made for lunch in about 20 minutes..
Eggplant, Snow Peas, Red Pepper, and some Shallots..

Mmm.. Tasty curry and it was made from the stuff
laying around in the fridge..

So if you have ever wanted to try making Thai curries.. Well it’s easy as pie.. Enjoy..

Now I need to learn
how to make my own sweet and sour chicken.. There is no even remotely decent Chinese place in Greensboro..

This just might be the sweetest most awesome thing ever..

The garden is doing awesome.. So far in about 2 weeks I have gotten a ton of fruit from the plants.. I
think there will be a massive abundance of fruit.. I love fried Zucchini, but does anyone have any awesome recipes that use Zucchini? I am not afraid to
try anything.. I’ll make Zucchini Ice Cream if you can convince me it tastes good..

There are finally fruit growing on everything else except the
cantaloupe (which has flowers).. Peppers, Tons of Tomatoes, Watermelon (They are about the size of a silver/Sacajawea dollar now), and carrots.. Well the
carrots may not make it.. The squash are starving them of sun.. Oh well..

Zucchini and a few Cucumbers – Not everything is
present either.. I ate some squash and cucumbers and left a few at Stacey’s..