Making Phad Thai

Last night (I seem to start a lot of my blogs with those two words!) I made Phad Thai and I'm very excited and proud of myself about it.

A very good friend of mine introduced me to Phad Thai two years ago. Before that I wasn't a fan of thai food, and now I can't get enough of it. When I was in Oman last June I had what can only really be described as the worlds best Phad Thai. Granted, this is from my limited experience only, and I haven't been to Thailand, where one assumes they do pretty good Phad Thai. At the moment, all Phad Thai's are held up in comparison to the Oman place. (BAH, if you're reading this, can you tell me the name of the restrauant?!)

I recently started buying lots of reciepe books and one my new favourites is "Vegie Food", a really simple vegetarian cook book. I'm not vegetarian, but have often thought I could be because I'm not a big meat fan, and because vegetarian options usually have so many flavours more than meat options.

Anyway. . . This book had a recipe for Phad Thai, how excited was I?!

Last night was the big night. JP was my guinea pig. I have never used so many dishes to cook a meal before! I had to substitute a few ingredients, and I added shrimps in place of tofu. It got the big thumbs from JP and from me. Not as good as the Oman place Phad Thai, but pretty good for a first time! I'll definetly be giving it another go :)

Here is the end result. It even looks like the picture in the book!


And the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
400g flat rice-stick noodles
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 onion, cut into thin wedges
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small red capsicum, cut into thin strips
100g fried tofu (I used shrimps instead)
6 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
25g chopped coriander leaves
60ml soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice (I had to use fresh lemon juice because we couldn't find lime juice at the supermarket)
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek (I didn't use this because neither JP or I know what it is!)
90g bean shoots
40g chopped roasted unsalted peanuts

METHOD
Cook the noodles in a saucepan of boiling water for 5-10 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat and add enough peanut oil to coat the bottom and side. When smoking, add the egg and swirl to form a thin omelette. Cook for 30 seconds, or until just set. Roll up, remove and thinly slice.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok. Cook the onion, garlic and capsicum over high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the onion has softened. Add the noodles, tossing well. Stir in the omelette, tofu (or shrimps), spring onion and half the coriander.

Pour in the combined soy sauce, lime or lemon juice, sugar and sambal oelek (if you know what it is!), then toss to coat the noodles. Sprinkle the bean shoots over the top and garnish with the peanuts and the remaining coriander. Serve immediately.

ENJOY!