Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Recipe for Pad Thai

We’ve been spending some more mellow time for the past few days, replaying our ordeal on the raft while getting Thai massages and taking cooking courses. We took two days of classes at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery school and learned how to make ten different and delicious Thai mainstays. And since we each made our own servings, Loey and Dylan had the special treat of being able to eat Thai food that wasn’t incredibly spicy or filled with coriander/cilantro. Here, then, is a good recipe for pad thai. We found that it’s really easy to make, and you can get it on every street corner here.

Pad Thai (Thai fried noodles), serves 2

10 oz. (300g) fresh rice noodles (or dried noodles, soaked in water for 10-15 minutes)
3 Tbsp (45ml) oil (not olive or sesame!)
1 Tbsp (5g) garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp (5g) small dried shrimps (yuck, I like the fresh shrimp!)
½ cup (3 oz, 80g) extra-firm tofu, diced (much more firm than what you normally get in the US)
6 Tbsp (90ml) water or chicken stock
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsp (45g) roasted peanuts, chopped
¼ cup (1 oz, 20g) green onions, cut into 1 inch/2cm pieces
1 cup (2 oz, 60 g) bean sprouts
2 limes cut into wedges
3 Tbsp (30g) sugar
3 Tbsp (45ml) Thai fish sauce (the darker, all-anchovy kind)
1 Tbsp (15 ml) soy sauce
2 Tbsp (30ml) tamarind juice (or tamarind paste dissolved in water)
2 Tbsp (30ml) Thai oyster sauce (milder than the Chinese version)
Chili powder to taste

Make sauce by combining the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, tamarind juice, oyster sauce and chili powder. Chop up and prepare everything you need, since you won’t have time while everything is cooking.

Put oil in a wok and put on high heat. Put in tofu and cook until firm, then add garlic and shrimp and cook until it smells good (don’t burn the garlic!). Add rice noodles and keep stirring for a few seconds to heat them. Add water/stock and cook until noodles are soft. Then turn down heat and add sauce ingredients and stir well. Add peanuts, green onions and sprouts (add fresh shrimp now, if desired, and cook until pink), then tip the wok and push everything to one side. Add a bit more oil and pour in the beaten egg and fry until dry on top. Then tilt the wok upright and combine everything. Turn off the heat, squeeze lime over the top, and serve.

As an aside for anyone coming to Chiang Mai, Emma, our friend from the raft trip, found a much better elephant experience. The Elephant Nature Park seems to be the most humane and involved in conservation of any of the camps around here. we just wish that we’d gone there instead of on the trip we’d taken.