FOOD with ATTITUDE

It is notoriously hard to start rosemary from seed… but I have a ONE seedling sprouting in its pot out on my balcony!!  I’m SO excited.

I don’t know how I did it, though.  I just got lucky.  I don’t have much of technique, because I haven’t done this enough to learn from trial and error. 

But I’m happy!

I finally did it.

I made a really good Pad Thai. 

Of course, it’s taken me YEARS.

As I have recently mentioned, I have been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain.  His food travels motivate me more than the Food Channel programs.  Recently, I’ve seen the shows from the far east — a lot, over and over, to the point of mouthwatering, drooling incapacitation while watching tv going on in my living room.  It’s obscene.  So, the other day, I made pho.  LOVE pho.  I would imagine that most chefs would absolutely go into cardiac arrest at my technique, which starts with beef broth, instead of oxtails, but you know, sometimes ya gotta do what you gotta do.  I improvise and don’t follow a hard-and-fast recipe, and I have to say, my finished product tastes better than most restaurants I’ve eaten the dish at.  Realize, though, I’m in Cleveland, and from Pittsburgh, and am not somewhere where there’s a large Vietnamese population that can kick my ass in making the dish.  I can hold my own among the restaurants I’ve been to.  That’s all I’ll say.  Since I’m not incredibly proud of starting my dish with Swanson’s beef broth, I’ve refrained from posting the recipe.  Once I figure out how to make it with oxtails and simmer for 24 hours, I’ll get back to ya on it, okay?!

However, in smelling the beansprouts the other day for the pho, I started to dream about Anthony Bourdain Pad Thai.  My problem has always been the noodles.  I could never figure out  how noodles so stiff could soften up enough in the few minutes you cook them for them to be edible.  So, more often than not, I soaked them in water far too hot for far too long and ended up with a soggy mess in my wok.  I decided to make Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Lemongrass Soup) last night along with Pad Thai while watching the Academy Awards, and in an effort to step up my Pad Thai game, I did a little more research.  In researching, imagine my dismay when Pim Techamuanvivit,  of the Chez Pim blog and my soon-t0-be-bitter rival, had a rather, shall we say, BASIC description on how to make the dish for those of us who are Pad Thai-impaired.  Considering the fact that she’s been a judge on Iron Chef, my absolute DREAM JOB, I decided to go ahead and give her credit where credit is due.  If Pim is from Bangkok, has stories published in Bon Appetit and Food & Wine, and has been a judge on Iron Chef, well, then, I suppose I can take some advice from her. 

Begrudgingly.

I am a bit of a purist — I want my dishes to be authentic, like they would taste if I had eaten them in their place of origin.  However, time, ingredients, and sometimes just plain ignorance on my part sometimes conspire to foil those efforts (as in the aforementioned pho).  In this case, as in that one, it appears that it is ignorance.  As I read over Pim’s description of how to make an authentic Pad Thai, I began to shrink down on my couch cushion (remember, folks, I’m UNEMPLOYED — I don’t write — or read things on the internet — behind a desk!) as I realized not only had my previous attempts at Pad Thai included a sauce made with ketchup, but I have actually even served the “abomination” (her words) to guests.

I was SO embarrassed.  Ketchup. Whatever could I have been thinking?!

However, in reading over Pim’s instructions, it became clear that I was going to have to get over my fear of fish sauce.  I use it, although I wouldn’t say liberally, and I do shy away from dipping sauces with it being the primary ingredient.  I don’t mind the taste of it as you first put it in your mouth — it’s the biting fish taste that rounds it out at the end that sometimes seems out of place with some of the ingredients I’m working with (as in, NOT fish).  So, I usually cut the amount by a tablespoon or two to bury the fish taste among the other ingredients.

However, as I mentioned, that is not always possible when the fish sauce is a primary ingredient.  Pim was suggesting a sauce made of equal parts tamarind pulp, fish sauce, and palm sugar.  She then spices it up with Thai chile powder or paprika (I used hot paprika and some red pepper flakes.  Apparently you can also use cayenne).  What I have found is that if you just do some poking around in your Asian grocery (and if you don’t have one, order online.  I also take questions as to what you’re looking for — I’ve been through all of this, trying to navigate a foreign grocery store for an ingredient that you wouldn’t recognize if it smacked you in the face), you can usually find what you’re looking for.  The internet is a lovely thing — it can show you what you’re looking for looks like, tell you  how to prepare it — the internet takes the mystery out of EVERYTHING (even Pad Thai, as well as a few other things I indulge in that I probably shouldn’t mention here).  So, anyway, I bought some tamarind pulp the other day, and I soaked two tablespoons of it in a half cup of warm water.  It took about 45 minutes for it to soften, and I kept smushing it with a fork, then I filtered it through a sieve.  I then used it, and true to form, used 1/3 cup of fish sauce (instead of 1/2), and then, I bought jaggery the other day at an Indian grocery, and thought that would be close enough to palm sugar (it was, but you can also use brown sugar, just use a little less — about 1/3 cup would be good.).  Cook these together on the stove, and then add your spice.  Then, adjust the ingredients to your taste preferences.  I ended up adding a bit more sugar, because I think that whole sweet-sour-salty thing works better when the sweetness is just a bit more pronounced — not overpowering the other flavors, just ever-s0-slightly more pronounced.  I also found that I would make my Pad Thai just a hair sweeter, because when I squeezed the lime on it afterwards, the sour taste overwhelmed everything else.  So, keep that in mind when you make the sauce.You’ll have the sauce warming beside your wok as you make your Pad Thai.

From there, it gets pretty imprecise, as well as MESSY. 

This are the ingredients you’ll need to have handy before you heat up your wok:

Rice sticks — soak in COLD water for up to two hours, no more.  About two handfuls per serving.
Egg(s) — Easiest to cook these first, no matter what anyone tells you
Protein — Tofu, Chicken, or Shrimp — any or all of these.  Peel and devein the shrimp, of course.
Minced garlic - will be the first thing you put in the pan that will stay in there for the duration ;-)  About a 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon per serving, a little more if you’re using  jarred.
Bean Sprouts - don’t overcook these, you want them to be crunchy.  Again, a handful or two per serving should be good depending upon your preference.
Pickled turnip or radish - Can be found at your asian market.  I couldn’t find the turnips, and used radishes.  In truth, it didn’t seem to add much, but it seems to be authentic, so, I did it anyway….
Green Onions - Will add at the end, use as much as you like — apparently should be more authentic in the form of chinese chives, but I compromise on this one because of my affinity for green onions…

For Garnish:
Lime wedges
Green onions
Chopped roasted peanuts
Chopped fresh cilantro
Extra bean sprouts
Chile powder

Pim’s suggestions are here:  http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html  She calls it a “completely foolproof” recipe. 

She clearly doesn’t know me.

The thing is, you have a lot of things going on as you make a good Pad Thai.  I tried her “completely foolproof” recipe last night, and failed miserably.  This morning, I got out my shameful recipe containing ketchup, which always worked moderately well, and compared and contrasted with Pim’s and tried to figure out where I went wrong.  It wasn’t the sauce.  It was the technique.  What happened last night that resulted in the WORST Pad Thai that I had EVER made was the fact that I cooked the egg and the shrimp in the wok WHILE the noodles were in there, causing the noodles to be in the wok WAY too long (in addition to having soaked them in warm water).  It was just… well, pretty disgusting.  So, today, I was pretty determined to figure this out.  So, I modified Miss Pim’s instructions. This is what I did:

I got everything ready, and set everything around me in bowls according to the order I need them in.  I realized that the key to cooking your noodles correctly is to focus on their doneness as the point where everything in the dish comes together.  The best way to to do that is to cook the eggs and the shrimp first, and separately, to the point where they were almost, but not quite, done.  This way, when you get the noodles to the almost-done point, you can toss the eggs and shrimp back in to heat them up and finish their cooking, and then you are done.

So, for one large, or two medium, servings:

1)  Heat your wok on medium high (things go WAY too fast for me when I’m cooking on high! LOL  ON high, people, not WHEN high…!).  Add a little oil — I used peanut oil.
2)  Fry up your egg till it’s almost done.  I use two eggs because I love egg in this dish, and I also scramble them first - my own preference.  Remove to a plate.
3)  Fry up your shrimp and/or chicken until almost done.  Remove to a plate.
4)  Add a bit more oil if needed.  Throw your garlic in the wok, and then tofu, if using.
5)  Add two BIG handfuls of noodles.  Put about 1/3 cup of sauce in the wok and toss vigorously.  It may take about 3 minutes for your noodles to start to cook down.
6)  Taste a noodle for doneness.  I usually add a bit more sauce at this point, and toss a little more.  The noodles will start to look glossy and silken, but may not be totally done yet.
7)  Add the egg and shrimp back to the pan, as well as the pickled radish and green onions, and toss for a minute or so, until shrimp are done and noodles are soft.  Add a few handfuls of beansprouts and toss, but don’t take much time to do so otherwise your beansprouts will get limp.
  Turn off heat and take pan off heat immediately.

Mound on a plate, adding additional beansprouts (for crunch), along with, well, I personally like a shitload of crushed peanuts — the peanuts totally MAKE this dish.  I use a ton.  Sprinkle liberally with the chopped cilantro, and also give it a squirt of lime.  I usually spice my sauce enough that I don’t use the additional chile powder, but Pad Thai is about customizing to your own liking, so add what you like. 

SO SIMPLE, but yet, it took me SO long to master.  And just a word to the wise:  my kitchen always looks like a war zone when I’m done.  Everything moves so fast, and you’re in a hurry to not overcook things, but yet the heat is so high, and you’re tossing and adding and cooking and rushing — it’s just messy.  It just is.

So, today, I had the most sublime Pad Thai I’ve ever made.  THANK YOU, PIM.  I knew she was a good girl.  It doesn’t make me any less jealous or prone to scratching her eyes out, but what the hell?!  She helped me with my Pad Thai technique.  She can’t be all that bad.

Oh, and I’d post a picture of the finished product….  Except I ate it too fast!  I was so excited.  Next time. 

That would be dinner time, today

Hi, Everyone!

I’m starting a new blog.  Please be patient as I get it up and running.

And make sure you’re hungry when you come back!  For food and drama!

Love you all!

Ames