Preparing Ingredients to Make Pad Thai at Home

Preparing to Make Thai Style Cuisine

I’ve been on a Thai cooking adventure for the past few weeks. I used to be the Herbs and Spices Feature Writer for Suite101.com and posted up a few Thai recipes and cuisine articles to that site before it shut down. I had Pad Thai on my list of Thai recipes to test and finally got around to making and testing out a Pad Thai recipe.

Pad Thai Recipe

Pad Thai is a classic stir-fried noodle dish. The recipe for Pad Thai is quite involved, and has a lot of different ingredients. I took a lot of photos as I was making the recipe that I thought would be helpful to anyone wanting to try making this classic dish at home.

Also, since the recipe is a bit involved, I’ve broken it down into two articles. This is the first article on how to prepare all the ingredients for making Pad Thai. The second article details how to put everything together and how to make Pad Thai, once all your ingredients are ready to go.

Overview of Pad Thai Ingredients

I’m sure if you ask 10 people how they make Pad Thai, you’ll end up with 10 different recipes. This is the one I followed. Further down in this post is a list of recipes substitutions if you don’t have all these ingredients in-stock.

• 8 ounces thin to medium wide, dry rice noodles
• 10 ounces raw shrimp
• 3 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons chili paste
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 shallots
• 2 eggs
• 1 bunch chives
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
• 2 tablespoons dried shrimp
• 1/3 cup roasted peanuts
• 2 cups mung bean sprouts
• 4 green onions
• 1 carrot
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 lime

Preparing Pad Thai Ingredients

1. Soak the rice noodles in a large bowl of cold water, for 20-30 minutes, or until soft. Don’t soak the noodles too long, or they will get mushy once they are stir-fried. Some people use hot water to soak their rice noodles. While this method only takes about 5 minutes, instead of 20-30, it usually makes the noodles too soft, once they are added to the wok and stir-fried.
2. Any size shrimp can be used in this recipe. I used large, 12 count shrimp, i.e. 12 shrimp per pound. All raw shrimp, whatever the size, needs to be peeled and deveined. Large shrimp will require a slightly longer cooking time then medium to small shrimp. FYI: shrimp have their own built in alarm clock, when they turn pink, they are done.
3. Add 3 tablespoons tamarind paste to a small bowl. Pour in the 3/4 cup boiling water, and let soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Use a fine mesh strainer to strain out the stringy tamarind pulp and seeds. The resulting liquid is one of the main ingredients used to make the Pad Thai sauce.
4. Use a mortar and pestle to pound out the disk of palm sugar. My palm sugar disks equalled exactly two tablespoons once they are pounded in the mortar. Your palm sugar disks may be larger or smaller than the ones I used so adjust the quantity if necessary.
5. Peel and finely mince the garlic cloves.
6. Peel the shallots, cut them in half, then thinly slice.
7. Add the eggs to a small bowl and whisk together.
8. Wash the chives well, to remove any sand, dry off, then cut into one to two inch long lengths. I like to use a pair of kitchen scissors, to snip my chives, rather than chopping with a knife.
9. Use a mortar and pestle to pound out the dried shrimp, until they are light and fluffy.
10. Roughly chop the roasted peanuts. I used salted, roasted peanuts, with no skin. 
11. Slice the green onions into diagonal pieces.
12. Peel and grate the carrot.
13. Wash the cilantro leaves well, to remove any sand, dry off, then roughly chop.
14. Cut the lime into wedges, to be used as a garnish.

Pad Thai Ingredient Substitutions

Specialty items, such as dried shrimp, palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind paste, can be found at online gourmet stores such as Importfood.com or Temple of Thai. If you are having trouble locating certain items, here are a few suggestions for possible substitutions.

Pad Thai Recipe Substitutions

If you don’t like a particular ingredient in Pad Thai, or you are missing a certain item, here are a few suggestions for recipe substitutions.

1. Use light brown sugar in place of the palm sugar.
2. Use the juice from two limes in place of the tamarind paste and boiling water.
3. Use soy sauce in place of the fish sauce.
4. Fresh parsley can be used in place of the cilantro.
5. Any protein can be used to make pad thai. Instead of shrimp, try using tofu, scallops, chicken or pork.
6. Use a large, thick bean sprout in this recipe, such as mung bean sprouts. Alfalfa and/or broccoli sprouts are much too thin for this recipe.
7. The chili paste can be omitted to make a non-spicy version of pad thai. But the chili paste really isn’t that hot, it just adds another layer of flavor to the dish. If you are really concerned with using chili paste, try using only 1 teaspoon, instead of 2, the first time you make Pad Thai.
8. Finely sliced red, yellow or orange bell pepper can be used in place of the grated carrot. They use carrot in the Pad Thai I get at my local Thai restaurant, so that’s what I prefer.

Now that you’ve got all your ingredients prepared – head on over to the How to Make Pad Thai blog.

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