Pad Thai is a Thai staple, found everywhere from the back of tiny carts in fishing villages to the kitchens of popular London restaurants. As with a lot of Thai dishes, it's simple in its construction but difficult to perfect, so we've enlisted the help of East Asian joint Ekachai.
Make the ultimate prawn pad Thai from Ekachai
Want an simple, great recipe for the brilliant all-rounder that is pad Thai? Look no further
Serves 2
Preparation time 5 mins
Cooking time 10 mins
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 10 raw king prawns
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp palm sugar
- 100ml boiling water
- 300g flat rice noodles (3mm wide), soaked in boiling water to soften first
- 100g bean sprouts
- 40g garlic/Chinese chives, cut into 1-inch-long pieces
- Garnish: bean sprouts, lime wedge, chilli flakes, crushed peanuts, fresh chilli slices and coriander
Method
- To make the pad Thai sauce, add the tamarind paste, fish sauce, palm sugar and boiling water into a bowl. Stir until the palm sugar is fully dissolved and all the ingredients are incorporated into the liquid. Set aside.
- Heat the cooking oil in a wok and fry the garlic and prawns together until the prawns start to turn pink. Break an egg into the pan and scramble until cooked and solid. Then add the rice noodles and pad Thai sauce that you've made. Fry everything until the noodles soften. Add the bean sprouts and chives and fry until lightly wilted.
- If your pad Thai looks too dry, sprinkle over some extra cooking oil. Serve it up on plates with a sprinkling of crushed peanuts, a few extra bean sprouts, chilli flakes, fresh chilli slices, coriander and a lime wedge to squeeze over.
