Pad Thai

Ingredients

Sauce

• 80 gtamarind pulp, soaked in 150 ml hot water and pressed through a sieve
• 100 gpalm sugar, chopped
• 60 mlfish sauce

Stir-fry

• 250 gdried chantaboon rice noodles (3–5 mm)
• 8large prawns, peeled, tails on
• 150 gfirm pressed tofu, cut in 1 cm batons
• 3 tbspdried shrimp, rinsed
• 40 gsweet preserved radish (chai po), chopped
• 4 tbsplard or neutral oil
• 4shallots, thinly sliced
• 3garlic cloves, chopped
• 3eggs

To finish

• 200 gbean sprouts
• 80 ggarlic chives, cut in 4 cm lengths
• 80 groasted peanuts, coarsely pounded
• 2 tsproasted chilli powder (prik pon)
• 2limes, cut in wedges
• Banana blossom and raw sprouts, to serve

Directions

1. Soak the dried noodles in room-temperature water for 45–60 minutes until pliable but still opaque and snappy. Drain hard. Never boil them – boiled noodles collapse in the wok.
2. Melt the palm sugar with the tamarind water and fish sauce in a small pan over low heat, stirring 3–4 minutes until it is a glossy, pourable syrup that tastes sour first, then sweet, then salty.
3. Set a wok over the highest heat you have until it smokes. Add 2 tbsp lard, sear the prawns 45 seconds a side until just pink, and lift them out.
4. Add the rest of the fat, then the shallots, garlic, tofu, dried shrimp and preserved radish. Stir-fry 2 minutes until the tofu edges brown and the kitchen smells sweet and salty.
5. Add the drained noodles and half the sauce. Toss and press the noodles against the hot wok, adding splashes of water, for 3–4 minutes until they turn translucent and slightly chewy.
6. Push everything to one side, add a little fat to the clear space, crack in the eggs and let them set 20 seconds before breaking them up and folding them through.
7. Return the prawns, add the remaining sauce, then throw in the bean sprouts, garlic chives and half the peanuts. Toss 30–45 seconds only – the sprouts must stay squeaky.
8. Tip onto plates and serve with the remaining peanuts, chilli powder, lime wedges, raw sprouts and banana blossom on the side so each person seasons their own.

Technique

• Pad Thai is cooked one or two portions at a time. A domestic burner cannot hold heat under four portions, so the noodles steam and clump – cook in batches for that dry, separate texture.
• The sauce should be balanced before it hits the wok: sour-forward from tamarind, rounded by palm sugar, salted by fish sauce. No ketchup – the red version is a tourist habit, not a Thai one.
• Chai po (sweet salted radish) and dried shrimp are what make it taste Thai rather than generic. Both keep for months and are worth a trip to an Asian grocer.

Substitutions

• No tamarind pulp? Use 5 tbsp tamarind concentrate loosened with water, but taste – concentrates vary wildly in strength.
• Fresh sen chan noodles can be used straight from the packet; skip the soak and cut the wok time to 2 minutes.

Variations

• Pad thai hor kai – the whole stir-fry wrapped in a thin omelette parcel.
• Pad thai jay, the Buddhist vegetarian version with salted soy bean in place of fish sauce and dried shrimp.

History

Promoted, not simply invented, in the late 1930s and 1940s by Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram as part of a nationalist campaign to build a modern Thai identity: rice was being exported for income, so the government pushed rice noodles as an everyday alternative and ran contests and street stalls to popularize a new noodle dish under the name ‘Thai-style fried noodles.’ The dish drew on Chinese stir-fried noodle technique already present in Thailand’s large Chinese-immigrant community, reworked with tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar and dried shrimp into a distinctly Thai balance of sour, sweet, salty and umami. What began as a state-backed nutrition campaign became, within a generation, the dish most associated with Thailand abroad.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pad Thai?

Pad Thai is a main from Thailand: wok-fried rice noodles with tamarind, egg, tofu, shrimp and peanuts. Promoted, not simply invented, in the late 1930s and 1940s by Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram as part of a nationalist campaign to build a modern Thai identity: rice was being exported for income, so the government pushed rice noodles as an everyday alternative and ran contests and street stalls to popularize a new noodle dish under the name ‘Thai-style fried noodles.’ The dish drew on Chinese stir-fried noodle technique already present in Thailand’s large Chinese-immigrant community, reworked with tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar and dried shrimp into a distinctly Thai balance of sour, sweet, salty and umami. What began as a state-backed nutrition campaign became, within a generation, the dish most associated with Thailand abroad.

How long does Pad Thai take to make?

Pad Thai takes 40 min of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Pad Thai?

Yes, within limits. No tamarind pulp? Use 5 tbsp tamarind concentrate loosened with water, but taste – concentrates vary wildly in strength. Fresh sen chan noodles can be used straight from the packet; skip the soak and cut the wok time to 2 minutes.

What is the most important thing to get right in Pad Thai?

Soak the dried noodles in room-temperature water for 45–60 minutes until pliable but still opaque and snappy. Drain hard. Never boil them – boiled noodles collapse in the wok.