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© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA
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Recipe from: WingsFan91
The route to this recipe started with a couple of requests for a "hot" version of pad Thai.
Unfortunately for those that asked, whilst you can add anything you like to pad Thai - including chiles - the result is not authentic. It simply isn't done (which is not to say that Thais don't load their plates of pad Thai with prik phom and chiles in fish sauce or vinegar ccording to taste)
Pad Thai is quite an elaborate dish. The style usually found in Thai restaurants outside Thailand is particularly elaborate, being referred to somewhat insultingly my Thai housewives as "pad Thai Krungthep" - the implication being that rich people in the capital do it that way to show off.
Ignoring the countryside versus capital debate, there is a local, very simple variant of the dish, known as pad mi Korat. Made with the round egg noodles known as sen mi, rather than the narrow rice ribbon noodles, and with a recipe that consists of partly cooking a cup of noodles, then stir frying them with a cup of sliced and shredded pak bung (swamp cabbage), adding a little tamarind juice for flavor, and drizzling a beaten egg over it to complete it.
However my wife prepares a more elaborate version of pad mi Korat, which is also fairly hot. This version I will call pad mi Korat phet (hot stir fried noodles in the Korat style).
Before I get into the details, I would like to make two comments.
The original of this dish is made with sen mi (Thai egg noodles), but if you can't find them I find it works very well with a spaghetti or similar (the little shell shapes are good).
The original uses swamp cabbage, but any greens will do. If I fancy splashing out we make this with a mixture of broccoli and asparagus.
To simplify the dish I should point out that it is actually made using table condiments, thus the ingredients are not as complicated as they look. I will first include recipes for the table condiments you need. In Thailand these would probably be on every housewife's table, but if you don't have them you should make them about a week before you intend to cook the dish.
We make them in vast quantities for the restaurant (in 5 gallon containers), but for home use we use 1 pint spring top preserving jars. These have the advantage of fitting in the door shelves of our fridge...
nam pla Prik
Put ⅔ cup of prik ki nu (finely sliced green birdseye or dynamite chiles) in a 1 pint jar, and fill with fish sauce. Seal and keep for a week before using.
Prik Dong
Put ⅔ cup of prik ki nu daeng (finely sliced red birdeye or dynamtie chiles) in a 1 pint jar, and fill with rice vinegar (any white vinegar will do, as will cider vinegar, if rice vinegar is unavailable).
Prik Siyu Wan
Put ⅔ cup of prik chi fa (sliced red or green Thai jalapeños) in a 1 pint jar, and fill with sweet dark soy sauce.
Kratiem Dong
Peel and slice ⅔ cup of garlic, place it in the 1 pint jar, add 1 teaspoon of palm sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of MSG (optional but recommended) and topped up with rice vinegar.
Khing Ki Mao
Julienne ⅔ cup of fresh ginger (into match stick sized pieces). Place in the 1 pint jar. Add ½ cup of Mekong whiskey (Mekong is a whiskey made from Rice. If you can't find it or prefer something else, any spirits, even sherry, will do). Add ½ cup of rice vinegar, and fill up the jar with fish sauce.
Now we'll progress to the pad mi itself.
1 cup of noodles
½ cup of green veggies
½ cup of mild peppers such as prik chi fa (Thai jalapeños). If you want to try this but at a lower heat level, use the Thai chili called prik yiek, or a bell pepper.
1 large egg (preferably a duck egg)
some tamarind juice
sugar
chiles
cilantro leaves
sliced cucumber for garnish.
Place the noodles in water to soak for about 15 minutes.
Place 2 tablespoons of the liquor from each of the five condiments listed above, together with 2 tablespoons of tamarind juice, in a small saucepan and simmer to reduce it to half its volume. When this is done heat a wok, and stir a teaspoon of the fish sauce from the nam pla prik into the egg, and beat it lightly. Drain 1 tablespoon of the pickle from each of the five condiments.
If you are using Italian pasta, boil it for half the normal cooking time.
Add all the ingredients except the egg and the reduced sauce to the wok and stir fry until the noodles are just "toothy" in texture. Add the sauce, turn the heat to as high as possible, and when the sauce has come to a vigorous boil, gently drizzle the egg into the mix, which will cook it.
Serve immediately, with the listed condiments, together with sugar and prik phom (powdered red chile), and decorate with the garnishes.
Special thanks to Muoi Khuntilanont.