Pad Thai from a Chinese Supermarket

A brief guide to making a Pad Thai with things you already have in your kitchen

Pad Thai basically consists of noodles, vegetables and a sauce. I usually start with the sauce because it's the most interesting. I start cutting garlic and chop it up into little pieces. Try curling your figures in and away from the knife as you chop. A professional chef once told me this would keep me from cutting my fingertips off. So I throw the garlic in with some soy sauce. You know how much soy sauce you like. I've nearly killed myself with too much before, but you shouldn't worry about this if you're making more than one portion.

I like adding some peanut butter and maybe even some peanuts that I've roasted in the skillet before hand (I do this because the chinese peanuts from the market are soft unless you roast them). Although the peanut butter is fairly sweet, I add a bunch of sugar because it tastes good with the salty soy sauce and I think that's part of the allure of the dish. It combines sweet, salt, and sour (the sour part comes from some lemon or lime juice which you can squeeze on top before you serve). To complete the sauce, try putting some spicy pepper paste in there. The kind I bought says it has chillies and soy beans. It's fierce.

So put all this along with some oil in your big wok and let the garlic roast while the oil soaks up the flavor (if you don't have a big wok, don't you think it's about time you bought one?). Then I throw the noodles in. Did I mention that my co-chef was cooking the noodles? Always cook with two people. I like glass noodles or any type of wheat noodles. Spaghetti is not a noodle. In any case, don't over-cook the noodles beforehand. They've still got to have enough strength in them to fry. There should be oil in there to keep the noodles from sticking to the wok (if this happens you also might have gotten the wok too hot). So the noodles are sizzling and it smells good. Your co-chef throws on some chopped cabbage, garlic chives and tofu.

There are a lot of other things you can add including scrambled egg, sprouts, broccoli, chicken, or carrots. So you fry it some more, always turning and mixing. When you're done use the previously mentioned citrus juice to garnish, along with some crushed peanuts if they're handy. I crush them by putting the flat side of my big cleaver on top and pounding down with my fist. This is good food.