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June 21, 2007

Pad Thai

I promised my Pad Thai recipe to a couple of people, so here it is:

12 oz wide rice noodles (pad thai noodles)
2 tblsp vegetable oil
1 cup bean sprouts
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 green onions, trimmed and sliced

2 eggs, lightly beaten
16 oz firm tofu, or 16 oz prawns, peeled and deveined, or a combination

1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tblsp ketchup

2 dried red chilies (I used Thai bird peppers)
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts (or you can roast raw ones in a skillet)
Lime wedges
Fresh cilantro

Soak rice noodles in hot water for 10-15 minutes, or until a little soft but not squishy. Drain.
Mix fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, and ketchup together and set aside.

Dry-roast chilies in a small pan until browned. Cut off stems, but leave seeds (unless you don't want it too spicy). Grind in a food processor or clean coffee grinder. Grind peanuts until chopped but not until they turn into peanut butter. Set both chilies and peanuts aside.

Drain tofu, and press lightly with a paper towel to remove excess water. Slice tofu into cubes or strips.

Heat oil in a wok until hot but not smoking. Add garlic and green onions and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add tofu, if using, and stir-fry until golden brown. Add prawns and stir-fry until just pink. Add noodles and stir gently to mix with oil. Pour fish sauce mixture on and stir to mix. Cook until sauce is mostly absorbed and noodles are soft, stirring occasionally.

Push noodles aside and pour in a little more oil. Pour in eggs and cover with noodles. Let cook until almost set, then stir to mix with noodles. Add bean sprouts and mix again, then remove from heat.

Put in a bowl and sprinkle with cilantro, ground chilies, and ground peanuts. Serve with lime wedges.

Posted by ktingey at 12:03 AM | Comments (8)

June 10, 2007

Fishy goodness

Dinner tonight was definitely Jeff's favorite in a while. I'd gotten halibut (or flounder, as Ethan prefers to call it), but had no real plan. Then Jeff suggested Carribean-style beans and rice - that was simple enough, and I added bacon knowing that would make it delicious in Jeff's estimation. Plus since we eat vege-fishian 90% of the time, it was a nice change. Oh yeah, and Linna liked it so much Jeff could barely keep up with her. She totally chowed down on beans and rice.

I made the fish sort of like a recipe in "A Taste of Africa," which also has Caribbean-style stuff. It called for whole fish, which I didn't have, and tamarind paste, which I also didn't have. And I didn't want (or have) red, green, or yellow peppers. And OK, I also skipped the mushrooms and lemon thyme. So it was only loosely related, really.

Anyway - I rubbed a bunch of ginger, salt and pepper, and some olive oil on the fish, then baked it for 15 minutes or so. I sauteed red onion, garlic, and more ginger in olive oil, then added sugar and sauteed it a bit more... then I added turmeric, mushroom stock, and white wine. Cooked it for a while. Just before we ate I put the fish in the sauce and bubbled it for a bit, then sprinkled cilantro on top. Yummy!

Posted by ktingey at 03:04 AM | Comments (9)