Serves 4.Noodles:
8 oz rice noodles
Tamarind sauce:
5 oz seedless tamarind paste
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 2 limes
2 teaspoons salt
Stir-fry components:
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
4 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, plus extra for deglazing*
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
2 tablespoons minced shallot
2 tablespoons grated ginger*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb fresh or frozen uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup bean sprouts
Garnishes:
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons sliced green onion
Sriracha
1 lime, cut into wedges
1) Place the rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot (but not boiling) water. Let it soak for at least a half hour, or until the noodles are softened, but have a little bite. Then, drain the noodles.
2) Prepare the tamarind sauce. Add the tamarind paste, sugar, lime juice and salt to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil, breaking up the tamarind with a spoon. It should create a thick, sticky sauce. My tamarind paste was not seedless as advertised, and I had to force it through a strainer afterward. (potchke alert) Set aside.
3) Whisk together the cilantro, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Set aside.
4) Melt the butter in a large pot or wok. Beat the egg with the milk, add to the pan, and cook until scrambled. Then set aside.
5) Clean out the pan, add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and set it back on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the ginger, shallot, garlic and shrimp. Cook for one minute, just until the shrimp gets some color. Add the tamarind sauce and the fish sauce mixture, and stir everything together. Add the noodles and toss, stir-frying until they are totally cooked, 5 minutes or so. If things look a little dry, add some extra peanut oil.
6) Garnish and serve!
Ingredients for tamarind sauce
Cooking and breaking down the tamarind
Straining the cursed seeds
Mise en place: drained noodles, peanuts, tamarind sauce, scrambled egg, fish sauce mixture, minced shallot, garlic, and ginger. And-- shout out Rachel Ray-- my garbage bowl!
Everyone in the pool. For more on shrimp, see here.
Finito.
I had a package of rice noodles gathering dust in the pantry for, oh, maybe a year. Then, on a lark, I bought a brick of tamarind paste when I spotted it at a Korean grocery store last week. Pad Thai. It had to be done.
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I didn't use any chiles...because I forgot to buy some. But I have to say, the sriracha was key. Personally, I found a healthy squirt of sriracha gave it the perfect amount of heat. Get a big bottle of sriracha! Put it on everything! You won't regret it! Everything else... as usual... is sort about what you have on hand and how much of each ingredient you prefer to use. A little bit more or less of each thing is not going to kill this dish.
* BONUS FACT: Ginger is a lot easier to grate if it's frozen. Bonus bonus fact: freezing things also make them last longer. So, keep a hand of ginger in your freezer and you'll never have to remember to buy it at the store. Slice off one end, and-- you don't even have to peel it-- just grate it right over a microplane. You'll get a perfect, very fine, fresh pile of ginger, every time! Do it!
PS Remember the shrimp-infused peanut oil leftover from shrimp tacos? Use it in the stir fry. Aw yeah.
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