December 8, 2008
Allison and I make Happy Thai
Allison and I came up with a plan to enhance my chances of someday finding a girlfriend with her help teaching me how to cook for vegetarians (she's a vegetarian). And because if I can cook for a vegetarian girlfriend, I should be able to cook for any girlfriend! Right? So from now on every week I'm going to cook Allison dinner. (I have to admit, this is a pretty great scheme to spend more time with her!)For our first meal we thought we'd try some vegetarian Pad Thai. I brought the Thai noodles and some Saki even though Saki is a Japanese drink, oh well. Allison supplied the other ingredients, cooking utensils, and the cooking confidence I lack.
I thought I'd include the recipe for anyone wanting to duplicate our tasty Thai dinner (note: for single guys – it helps to have a smart multi-tasking lady helping you) Click here for the excellent recipe Allison found on About.com. Below is our modified ingredients and instructions...
Our Ingredients:
Noodle Ingredients: 6-7 oz. Pad Thai rice noodles (for the two of us), 2 eggs, 2 cups bean sprouts, about 6 cups of cabbage, 2 spring onions sliced, handful of fresh coriander (I'm not sure if we used this), 1/4 cup ground (or roughly chopped) peanuts (we used about 1 and a half tablespoons of chunky peanut butter stirred into the sauce after it's prepared), 4 cloves garlic minced (we used a couple teaspoons of garlic powder). Sauce Ingredients: 3 Tbsp. water, 2+1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce (or gluten-free soys sauce), 1-2 tsp. chili sauce, 2 Tbsp. brown sugar. Other Ingredients: Love, Patience.
Our Modified Instructions:
● Soak the noodles in hot water (but not boiling) for 10-15 minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse with cold water. Tip: Noodles are ready to stir-fry when they are soft enough to eat, but still firm and a little bit "crunchy". The noodles will finish cooking when they are fried, so don't over-soften them now, or you will end up with soggy Pad Thai.
● Prepare sauce while the noodles are soaking. Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a soft boil. Stir well until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce thickens (2-3 minutes).
● Beat the eggs (if using). Heat a small skillet, add some oil, and quickly scramble the eggs.
● Place your wok (or large frying pan) over medium-high heat.
● Stir-fry the cabbage with garlic powder 1-2 minutes.
● Add 1 Tbsp. more oil to the wok. Now add the drained noodles. Drizzle 1/3 of the sauce over the noodles and then stir-fry everything together for 1 minute.
● While stir frying use two large wooden spoons to lift and turn the noodles as you fry them (like tossing a salad).
● Add a little more sauce and continue stir-frying in the same way for 1-2 more minutes, or until the noodles begin to soften and become sticky. Tip: Depending on the material of your wok, you may want to turn the heat down to medium, as a wok that's too hot at this point could burn the noodles.
● Add more sauce to taste
Add the bean sprouts and egg (if using). Stir-fry everything together for 1 more minute.
● Taste-test noodles. Noodles are cooked to perfection when they are soft but still slightly chewy.
● Thats it, now you're done!
Now you have a delicious authentic Thai dinner! Click here for some pictures of our cooking experience! There's also a couple pics of Mike and Colin's visit.
Labels: Allison teaches Jon how to cook
