11: Pad Thai (Page 295, TNBR)
Some of the wonderful things about TNBR are:
- The amount of work they have obviously gone through to eat, research recipes and then cook these meals.
- The fact that they describe how it's supposed to taste (Pad Thai is supposed to taste: sweet, salty, sour and spicy...and none of these flavours should dominate.)
- What would make it bad (slick greasy noodles or unbalanced flavours) or good.
- Useful tips and common mistakes.
Armed with these tips I attempted to make my own version of one of my favourite takeout dishes. My result definitely tasted different from other Pad Thai's I've tried, and also different from the book. I re-read the passage and finally isolated my problem. "Tasters like the garlic at 1 tablespoon minced". The ingredients list 3 garlic cloves. I have no idea how big their garlic cloves are but my 1 1/2 garlic cloves was at least 3 tablespoons worth. So I tasted a lot of garlic. It's a good thing that garlic is good for the heart. Next time I make this, I will definitely keep this in mind.
The tips for making the noodles just right were perfect since I do have a terrible tendency to overcook my noodles/pasta to the point of glugginess. I was impressed with the way the noodles didn't stick together to form one big ball of rice noodle. I do think I could have made it a bit drier and with more egg (since my eggs seem to be smaller than their "large egg").
Although the garlic did overpower any other taste, I did manage to salvage this by adding a little fish sauce and sugar. So in the end it did not turn out so badly. However I'm so used to seeing Pad Thai with a tinge of red so I was disappointed by how colourless mine looked, but TBNR says "the vinegary tomato flavour is out of place". It might just depend on taste so tomorrow I am going to add a little bit of tomato sauce to the rest of my Pad Thai to see how it turns out.
Cooking time: 40 minutes (The noodles need to soak for 20 minutes)
