It's hard to find a good pad thai in Sydney with the exception of Thai La Ong where I had the most delicious pad thai with sliced pork. I've only been there once quite a few years ago, but I vividly remember the pad thai which was moist, saucy, and bursting with flavours of tamarind and the charry smokiness from the wok. Nothing like those pale-looking, bland and boring pad thais some other restaurants serve. That was my benchmark for pad thai, and today, I've got the perfect recipe that I hope you will enjoy. The only thing was that I couldn't find thin pad thai rice sticks at the supermarket. So I had to make do with the broader version which was about 1 cm wide. When the craving hits, you just have to make do with what's available! Continue reading to find the recipe.
Pad Thai
Serves 1 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 10 mins
Ingredients
60g thin pad thai rice sticks
Vegetable oil
1/4 large red onion, sliced
1 eggs
2 tsp chopped preserved radish/turnip
5 prawns, shelled with tail on
80g pork belly, skin-off, thinly sliced and marinated with 1/2 tsp fish sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp cornflour
1/4 cup diced firm tofu
Sauce:
1 tbsp (15g) palm sugar, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp tomato sauce
1/4 cup tamarind paste / puree
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
Handful of garlic chives, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and tailed
Garnish:
Garlic chives (see above)
1 tsp dried roasted red chilli powder/flakes
1 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts
Lemon/lime wedges
Method
Preparation:
- Marinate the pork belly slices.
- Soak the rice sticks in water (not hot) for 30-60 minutes until soft and pliable. Drain and set aside.
- Place sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer until sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large wok. Add 2 tbsp of red onions and fry for 1 minute. Crack 1 egg into a bowl and lightly beat. Pour over the onions and scramble the eggs. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Add 2 tbsp oil into the work and add the remainder red onions, followed by 2 tsp preserved radish. Then add pork and prawns and fry until cooked. Add the tofu.
- Toss in the noodles and fry briskly on high heat. Add the eggs from Step 1. Pour the sauce around the edge of the wok and toss with the noodles for 1 minute until the sauce is almost absorbed. However, there should be some liquid left to keep the noodles moist. Toss in half of the bean sprouts and garlic chives for 20 seconds. Turn off heat and transfer noodles to a plate.
- Garnish with bean sprouts, chives, chilli powder/flakes, crushed peanuts and lemon wedges. Serve immediately and enjoy the best pad thai!
