Pad Thai (cooking with Frag)

From a well known Isaac and FTL twitch streamer, this recipe is fairly complex.

Pad thai is hard to master as you dont want to end up with something mushy.

Ingredients - Serves 2-3

Sauce :

2 Tbsp Tamarind Paste

3 Tbsp Sugar

3 Tbsp Fish Sauce

1 Tbsp Sambal (or other hot sauce that isn't vinegar based)

Base

½ Pound Shrimp, cleaned. Save shells/heads

8 oz Pad Thai noodles (Rice noodles)

1 Large Shallot, sliced

2 Garlic cloves, sliced

½ block of tofu, the soft kind, pressed between two towels for 30 minutes

1 Tbsp Roasted peanuts, chopped

⅔ cup water

5 Tbsp Oil

1-2 cups mung bean sprouts (depending on your taste!)

Instructions

1. Boil water and remove from heat. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes and then pour over the Pad Thai noodles in a bowl. Stir regularly and check for doneness every 5 minutes. Noodles should have a bite to them. Once cooked, drain and rinse with cool water. Set aside with towel over the top.

2. Heat the Wok on high heat until just smoking. Add 1 Tbsp oil and shrimp shells.

3. Cook shells until they turn orange and add ⅔ cups water. Allow mixture to simmer for 2 minutes.

4. Strain the mixture into a bowl and add your sauce ingredients. Mix until the sugar dissolves.

5. Add 1 Tbsp oil to pan and cook the shrimp until they curl and get a little golden brown on the edges. 1-2 minutes. Remove them from the pan but leave all that good stuff behind.

6. Add 1 Tbsp of oil to the pain and gently fry the tofu. Once it is golden brown, break it up with your spatula and add in the shallot, garlic and peanuts.

7. Cook all ingredients for another 2-3 minutes and then add your noodles. Mix it all around and dump your sauce on top. Continue mixing until the sauce is well absorbed. Note: If you want to use egg in your dish, push all the ingredients to the side and crack an egg at the bottom. Gently scramble it and mix in with noodles while still slightly underdone but not runny.

8. (Missed step in video) Add in mung bean sprouts. Cook for 1 minute, add in shrimp.

Additional Notes:

Vegetarian/Vegan: To make the recipe vegetarian, replace the fish sauce with Tamarind or soy sauce. Instead of the shrimp stock, add 1 Tbsp tahini to the sauce. It gives it a slightly different flavor but really adds a depth that you miss out on without the shrimp stock.

Gluten Free: Check your fish sauce brand. Red Boat is a great one and does not have gluten in it but some do. Unless you get some real weird noodles, everything else *should* be gluten free but always check your labels.

Last edited on: 2022-06-17