Not Your Mother’s Pud Thai
Written by Scotia48 on May 12, 2008 – 5:50 pm -PUD THAI - AMERICAN STYLE (Sort Of)
Pud Thai is a personal taste to alot of people. Many carts in Asia make totally different Pud Thai to attract clients to their stand. I really love it and have made an evolving dish over the years. My latest does take some pre-prep, but you knew that, didn’t you? It’s all stuff you can make days in advance and on THE DAY, it’s ready and waiting to be used. I love that!
Things to make beforehand:
Tamarid Sauce
Tamarid Concentrate, this is a cake of “Wet Tamarid Seedless” about 4″X6″X1.5″. It’s not really seedless. I usually make 1/2 a cake at a time. Take the cake and put in a bowl and add some hot water-maybe 1 cup. Let sit until cooler and mush with your hands until really mushy and mixed. Add more water if needed. Strain. You can place in a jar and use in any recipe, it last awhile.
1/2 C Tamarid “Juice”
1/2 C Fish Sauce ( I like the Three Crabs Brand)
1/2 C Palm Sugar (oh, this is great. Palm Sugar is like maple syrup, in that is tapped from the palm tree.) I buy the sugar cakes and chop them and add about a tablespoon of hot water and microwave to soften the cake to a syrup, mix and add to the other ingredients. You can use a white or brown sugar if palm is not available. Just not as much.
Add 1 tsp at a time of toasted paprika to taste. Easy-buy bulk paprika and whenever you have time, just toast some in a dry skillet until it smells ‘toasted’. It will keep in a glass container for a long time. If you can get it, ground Thai chili powder is nice to use.
You will also need some oil to thin it out a bit if it is too thick, especially if you stick it in the fridge and try to use it later. I Suggest an oil that has no flavor like canola rather than something like peanut or olive.
This sauce need to say salty first, sour next, sweet softly and hot in the back of your throat at the end. Sweet is the flavor NOT to over do. You really can’t adjust it back to a balance. Go conservative on sweet. The 1/2 C of palm sugar was the right amount for me. And remember, you will be diluting this into dishes, so, the balanced sauce needs to be in your face on tasting.
Roast peanuts - I use unsalted raw peanuts place on a lipped baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the peanuts are beginning to smell roasted. They will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Let them cool, then shell and hull.
You will need a kettle of boiling water to add to the dish as you cook if needed.
This is for 2 serving. Have everything ready before heating the wok.
Good Quality Peanut Oil
Rice Sticks/Noodles-you want the flat noodle kind, kind of like egg noodle (don’t use them!), use about 4-6 ozs. Place rice sticks in a bowl and pour hot water over. Let the sticks soak until pliable but not soft-’al dente’. Drain and separate. If you can’t find the rice sticks, you can use rice vermacelli, which is really thin rice pasta. Soak in hot water a very short time. 2-3 minutes and drain before stir frying.
Extra firm tofu-slice about 1/2 a block into matchstick size portions and drain well
Wild Gulf Large Shrimp-shell and tail off, chop into 1″ -1 1/2″ portions (or use smaller fresh shrimp whole but shelled)
Two eggs at room temperature
3-4 cloves fresh garlic chopped
Shallot, chopped
1 1/2 C Fresh bean sprouts
Scallions or garlic chives, sliced into matchsticks
Other optional ingredients are: banana flowers, dried shrimp, dried shaved bonito, preserved turnips (I’ve only tried the bonito since I had it on hand and like the additional layer of flavor. I just tossed a pinch into the dish.)
Condiments include:
Crushed roasted peanuts
Thai pepper, chopped fine
Cilantro, sliced
Thai purple basil, sliced
Thai mint, sliced
Rooster chili garlic sauce
Slices of lime
Prepare the condiments in separate bowls.
Heat a wok until slightly smoky. Keep it hot throughout cooking, this is a quick dish. Add 2-4 Tbs. peanut oil. Add tofu and shallot for 2-3 minutes until tofu is crisping, add garlic, cook 2-3 minutes, add rice stick and 1/4 C tamarid sauce. Stir until rice stick softens a bit, if rice is thickening the dish too much, add some of the hot water. Push rice to one side, add eggs and let cook for a few minutes and then toss into the rest of the mixture. Add bean sprouts and scallions and heat. Add more tamarid sauce to taste. Add some peanut oil if you want. Turn out onto plates when heated. Serve with condiments. 
Posted in Diaries, Food, Frugality, Recipes |
Well I really screwed up. Tried to do the break-”Read more”-didn’t work, and tried to do some pics-didn’t work. Sorry y’all!
Great recipe, thanks (I secretly love peanuts) . Tamarind is a wonderful spice in soups as well.
How to do Read more — be sure to take all the spaces out:
< ! - - more - - >
I just happen to have several bags of tamarind something er other I boiled down last winter - or was that fall? from tamarind pods.
I’d completely forgotten about them until this. As soon as I get some extra time, I’ll try this.
My dear, you have me at a disadvantage! Thank you, for the HTML direction, a couple of dashes make all the difference. Did you get to my post on Texas-the Dallas-Austin-Denison connection? Maybe we’ve passed in the night here or there. We met a couple up here who lived in Houston, her name was the same as my grandmother’s and we lived in the same apartment complex in Richardson 5 years apart! Remember that series, Connections? Or 6 degrees of separation or the Kevin Bacon thing? We are all connected in some way or another.
Glad you like this, I enjoy making it.
Half my family lives down there. I’m related to all the zuegirdoRes and crravaNs in the state, I think sometimes.
And of course there are the people with the good old fashioned extremely common Southern last names, all of whom I related to.
Truth be told, I’m related to half the people from North Carolina into Tennessee into Arkansas into here and then maybe an eighth of the people in Texas.
My favorite aunt lived in San Antonio. eensehC, in case you ever ran into any of them. omg, she was wonderful!
Oh and, yes, I saw your post. But I leave for work really early and I can’t post from work (although I can read from there), so I didn’t reply.
We’re probably related!!!
Oh, that would be fun. I have a couple of relatives that were at the Alamo. That is one of the really best historical sites. It’s been changed so much but also is still the same. When you go there you can’t get your mind around the movies you’ve seen and the actual tiny, tiny site. When I saw my relatives names, I cried.
The Emily Morgan Hotel next to the Alamo is a really nice place to stay. It’s an old triangular medical building that was rescued in the 80’s and made into a hotel. Lovely big rooms with whirlpool baths. You can actually go up on the roof at certain times and see the city. The RiverWalk ain’t bad either. Lots of interesting watering holes and eateries. The Market is wonderful, too! Oh, do I sound like a travelogue or what? San Antonio is such a great place to visit!
Thanks for reminding me. Got to go back soon.
We *are* related — not by blood, but by marriage! I’m sure of it.
You’re like a genetic Texan!
You betcha! There are just too many of us!
We’re all Texan! We all have the same amount of mixed blood! We’re all….you know where this is going…
We have plenty of tamarind here. In fact I walked by a house today and there was a tamarind pod crucifix in the window. I love the way they improvise here.
The other ingredients are not available for me though. God, it sounds so good.
So, you are saying a care package wouldn’t make it intact?
Most is easily available some things could make it to you by post, humm?
You know, some dkos folks sent me books and it cost floja roja sixty five dollars to send. Mcmom sent some and it cost her fifty bucks. The postage is way too much.
Well, I’ll check into it. Maybe I’ll just bring some stuff down.
It would be great to meet you. You are welcome to visit anytime. Your room is ready.
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