Thai Night with Shlee!

Ashley and I both get a subscription to Bon Appetit and this January issue came with a Pad Thai recipe.  We love thai food and I've always wanted to try to make it so this seemed like the perfect recipe for a girls night.  With it also being January (New Year's Resolution time) we decided that once a month we should choose a recipe and cook/bake it.  That should be easy enough, right?  We'll see.  I also said that about Real Simple in December.  Every issue I want to try 3 of the 5 recipes they provide that month. 

Our pad thai grocery shopping was very amusing.  We decided to substitute a lot of the ingredients in the recipe (but it still came out great!) by googling substitutes while standing in the aisle.  I've listed the actual ingredients below with the subsitutes we used next to it in red. 

Pad Thai
2 servings

5 oz. pad thai rice noodles
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large egg, room temperature
6 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined (optional)
2 Tbsp. 1x1/2x1/8" slices pressed tofu (bean curd) we bought firm - apparently there is firm tofu and extra firm tofu - who knew!
1 Tbsp. sweet preserved shredded radish, rinsed, chopped into 1" pieces we just bought regular radishes and shredded them with a grater
1 cup bean sprouts didn't use them - I'm not a fan of bean sprouts
5Tbsp tamarind water, or 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. tamarind paste mixed with 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. water used a mix of orange juice and lime juice instead
1 1/2 Tbsp. (or more) Thai fish sauce (nam pla) used soy sauce instead
1 1/2 Tbsp. simple syrup, preferably made with palm sugar we made our own - dumped some sugar in boiling water and voila!
4 garlic chives, 2 cut into 1" pieces garlic chives are a real thing, but we just used regular chives and some minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ground dried Thai chiles, divided bought some Mexican dried chiles and magic bulleted them
2 Tbsp. crushed roasted, unsalted peanuts, divided
2 lime wedges

Place noodles in a large bowl; pour hot water over to cover.  Let soak until tender but not mushy, 5-10 minutes.  Drain; set aside. 

Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add egg; stir until barely set, about 30 seconds.  Add shrimp, if using.  Cook, stirring, until shrimp and egg are almost cooked through, 2-3 minutes.  Add tofu and radish; cook for 30 seconds.  Add noodles and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in sprouts.  Add tamarind water, fish sauce and simple syrup and stir-fry until sauce is absorbed by noodles and noodles are well coated, about 1 minute.  Stir in chopped garlic chives.  Add 1/4 tsp. ground chiles and 1 Tbsp. peanuts and toss well.  Transfer to serving plates. 

Wow.  Guess we used a TON of substitutes.  It was honestly delicious - I would say Thai restaurant quality.  However, I do think I cooked the noodles a little too long because they were a bit mushy.  Also the next day it was just ok reheated. 

As a side, we also made Baked Crab Rangoon.  Check out the recipe on Foodgawker.com.  These were also good but WAYYYYYY too much crab, not enough cream cheese. 

http://somekitchenstories.com/2011/08/19/that-crabby-rangoon/

Garnish with remaining 1/4 tsp ground chiles, 1 Tbsp. peanuts and lime wedges.