We are absolute South-East Asian food buffs (of the vegetarian kind, however), especially Thai food. On our recent trip to Thailand, we had the opportunity to sample some authentic Thai cuisine – from really good restaurants to the streets! We also took a cooking course up in Chiang Mai where we learned the subtle art of Thai cooking (it was one of our trip highlights!). Rahul has a blog post on that experience here.

Ever since we got back from Thailand, we have not had Thai food that is “good enough”. Especially, Pad Thai – the simple, yet tasty noodles cooked Thai style!

Surprisingly, Pad Thai is a recent creation (according to our cooking class instructor) – ~50 years old. In the 40′s/50′s someone up in the Thai government was looking for a “national dish” that could set Thailand apart from its neighbors. Just having noodles and stir-fries was not enough, since almost all Asian countries have this. Curries did not quite cut it for some reason. Hence, an entirely new dish was created. What makes Pad Thai stand out from the rest of the plethora of noodle dishes out there is the use of tamarind to get the sour flavor!

Unlike Indian food, most Thai recipes do not call for the long cooking and stirring of the food. You get your ingredients cut and ready, toss them in the pan, stir a bit and voila!

This simple dish is easy to make, full of fresh ingredients and has a mix of sweet and sour flavors. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Serves: 1 person

Preparation time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 8 pieces of extra firm tofu (cut 2-inches long rectangle shape)
• 2 shallot (cut into thin long slices)
• 2 cloves of garlic medium size (finely chopped)
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 4 florets of broccoli
• 10-12 slices of carrots (cut into thin strip)
• 10-12 slices of Red pepper (cut into thin strip)
• 6-7 sticks of chives(cut around 2-inches in length)
• 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts powder (coarse powder)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 7-8 tea spoons light soy sauce(adjust if you have dark sauce)
• 1 tea spoon tamarind paste(adjust as per taste)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 5-6 table spoons of water
• 1 cup fresh rice noodles (check the note at the bottom)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in the wok and stir fry tofu until it turns light brown (approx 1 min).
2. Now add garlic and shallots and stir fry for another minute.
3. Add noddles, water, soy sauce, tamarind paste and sugar and give it a quick stir.
4. Now add the chives, bean sprouts, carrots, red pepper and broccoli and keep stir frying for 1-2 minutes.
5. While serving sprinkle some roasted peanuts powder on the top and enjoy!

Note:

1) For the Pad Thai it is a must to have rice noodles. You can get fresh rice noodles in the grocery store. If you have dried noodles for Pad Thai then, follow the instructions on the packet and boil them accordingly. If you sprinkle few drops of water on the rice noodles they will fall apart if they are sticky. Do not add water (5-6 table spoons) listed in ingredients.

2) Soy sauce, tamarind paste and sugar can be adjusted more or less as per taste.

I was born and brought up in Gujarat, where daal and rice is a must along with at least one meal a day. Gujarati Daal has a balance of sweet and sour flavors, is easy to digest, nutritious and tastes delicious! I thought I’d share this with you to enjoy as well.

This recipe requires a lot of ingredients (to bring about many flavors), but is quite simple to make. I’m changing the format of the recipe a little bit to make it simpler to follow the steps. Instead of the standard: Ingredients list, then preparation methods, I’m making this recipe a two step process, with the ingredients and preparation for each step.

Ingredients and Directions

Step 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup toor daal (yellow lentil daal)
• 2 ½ cups water
• 10-12 raw peanuts
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• ¼ cup chopped tomatoes (or lemon as per taste)
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Directions:

• Soak the daal for half an hour in water.
• Add the rest of the above ingredients and pressure cook until soft (it takes about 2-3 whistles in the pressure cooker).

Step 2

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar or jaggery (optional)
• 1 small green chilly, cut into small pieces (spicy as per preference)
• 1 tablespoon cilantro
• 1/2 tea spoon of mustard seeds
• 1 table spoon oil
• A pinch of asafoetida (hing powder optional)
• ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
• 2 cloves
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• 2-3 curry leaves
• 1/2 tea spoon red chilly powder (if using paparika you can add 1 tea spoon)
• ½ teaspoon coriander powder (dhana powder)
• Salt, as per taste

Directions:

1. Add 2 more cups of water and let it boil on low heat.
2. As it boils, add curry leaves, sugar (or jaggrey but its optional), salt, coriander powder, the cinnamon stick and green chillies.
3. In a separate small pot or pan, heat the oil.
4. Add the cloves and fenugreek seeds.
5. Once the seeds start to become slightly brownish in color, add the mustard seeds.
6. When mustard seeds start popping switch of the flame and add asoafoetida, and red chilly powder and then pour the whole mixture into the boiling daal (ensure that chilli powder do not turn black and be careful that the oil does not splatter).
7. Let the daal cook for 20-25 mins to get a nice consistency.
8. Sprinkle some cilantro on top, and serve with hot cooked rice.

Note: For those who do not like sweet flavor should not add jaggery/sugar.