Thai one on: a working title
Dear 29,
Anthony moved. It's very sad, but also super great for him. (Hi Tone) In your honor, I made authentic pad thai. (Anthony tells me it's pronounced "pod thai" and that "pad" isn't the correct way to say it. I still said "pad thai" while cooking. Sorry Anthony. The new pronunciation is pretty tough to get used to my friend.)
This quest to cook authentic pad thai (I'm assuming Alton Brown's recipe is authentic. I hope it was.) came out of a hungry conversation on a car ride back to DSM from Muskie. Thai Flavors was closed. Ridiculous considering the internet said they were open until 8pm on Sundays. And poof: I decided I needed to cook thai food. Real thai food.
I've now given this recipe a go twice. And I'm definitely learning a lot about the individual ingredients, especially how they smell. Whew. A few things to know about pad thai and the "authentic recipe" that might help you:
- It smells terrible at first. Like run the fan above the stove terrible. Then it starts to smell delicious. I promise. You will think you failed, but you didn't. Keep going.
- Wok. You should use one. I didn't, and wish I did.
- Drink a Thai beer while cooking to bolster your courage. I recommend Singha.
- Salted Radish is a good substitute for Salted Cabbage.
- Snip up the dried shrimp into tiny little bits. You'll be happy you did.
- This is worth repeating. Don't smell the fish sauce + tamarind + rice vinegar + palm sugar mix.
- Make sure you have some sriracha for your dinner date in case they want to add a lil spice.
- You'll have enough of the ingredients to try this recipe a few times.
Anthony moved. It's very sad, but also super great for him. (Hi Tone) In your honor, I made authentic pad thai. (Anthony tells me it's pronounced "pod thai" and that "pad" isn't the correct way to say it. I still said "pad thai" while cooking. Sorry Anthony. The new pronunciation is pretty tough to get used to my friend.)
I made two trips to the local Asian Market after forgetting to buy "salted radish." I had to google a whole lot of these ingredients. Salted Radish, for example, is actually dried, salted radish, as the package says. Should have probably been able to figure that one out myself.
Tamarind Concentrate is super tart and made from the pods from the tree featured on the packaging. Palm sugar is tasty, just so you know, and I am using it in my coffee daily. (The coffee made in my new Keurig. Which I technically bought for a Christmas gift for someone else, but kept at my home to "try it out for awhile." Generosity.)
- It smells terrible at first. Like run the fan above the stove terrible. Then it starts to smell delicious. I promise. You will think you failed, but you didn't. Keep going.
- Wok. You should use one. I didn't, and wish I did.
- Drink a Thai beer while cooking to bolster your courage. I recommend Singha.
- Salted Radish is a good substitute for Salted Cabbage.
- Snip up the dried shrimp into tiny little bits. You'll be happy you did.
- This is worth repeating. Don't smell the fish sauce + tamarind + rice vinegar + palm sugar mix.
- Make sure you have some sriracha for your dinner date in case they want to add a lil spice.
- You'll have enough of the ingredients to try this recipe a few times.
Anthony. I hope you're proud.
xo-LP