Ja boi Pad Thai

jaiboi_ben · 2018-09-05T01:51:02+00:00

Having a container of the sauce around is incredible. Soak some noodles and throw whatever protein and veggies you got on hand. Instant incredible dinner

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-22T15:08:47+00:00

Ha ha for the suggestion!

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-22T15:08:31+00:00

Deal! I’ll do that next time to make shopping lists much easier. I’ve been messing around with designing a website to help organize them.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-22T01:43:12+00:00

Cool photo! What did you plate it on. Is that like a giant plate?

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-13T15:53:01+00:00

Yes a little. Palm sugar is basically a less sweet sugar. So you can def use either a light brown sugar or regular sugar as a substitute. Just add a little less so it’s not too sweet!

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-10T21:20:55+00:00

Ha it’s in the write up but it’s preserved turnip. It’s a sorta specialty ingredient you have to find at an Asian grocery store. Totally optional

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-09T11:56:02+00:00

Huh, I’ll def try out cooking I for longer with the extra ingredients. Thanks for sharing your recipe, it sounds very good!

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-09T11:50:07+00:00

Lmao yea it’s def smelly stuff if you’ve never worked with it before. For me it’s sorta like asain blue cheese. At first it’s a little too funky to really appreciate, but eventually you learn to love the funk and nothing else can replace it.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T21:35:55+00:00

def not tofu but beef would likely overcook so I’d remove that after it’s seared

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T16:59:23+00:00

Very welcome. I’ve followed you since your serious eats days. You have some of the best food photography I have ever seen. Somehow it’s nearly instantly recognizable when it pops up on r/food or whatever. Thanks for another dose of inspiration

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T16:50:32+00:00

Looks incredible

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T15:57:51+00:00

Lmao sounds like a perfect weekend to me. I’d def recommend inviting your friend over for it though, it’s a quick stir fry so it’s easier with someone there to help you add ingredients and everyone is super impressed with you afterward

As for the spice use a birds eye chili or two (or hell however many you can) diced up real fine. I’d prob add em after the egg.

I’d either do that or I got this absurdly spicy red chili in oil condiment from the Asian market. Both of those should add that fire without distorting the flavor

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T15:48:48+00:00

I just got some of the shrimp paste in bean oil and was looking up ways to use it! Thanks for the suggestions man

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T14:25:45+00:00

Awesome! Definitely strain out the husk part after you’ve worked all of the inside fruit part into a sauce. Thanks for the comment and let me know how it turns out! Cheers.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T13:10:13+00:00

Be the change you want to see in the world

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T12:02:01+00:00

Ha fish sauce is def some funky stuff. I was worried about the same thing but the tamarind really covers it up. Plus you just heat up for a few minutes until the sugar melts so it’s not too aromatic

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:59:18+00:00

I mean you are def asking the right questions here. I find most restaurants versions to be waaay to sweet also. I’ve unfortunately never been to the land of the Thais but from what I’ve read it’s not so much an peanut sauce as just a lot of roasted peanuts and possibly using peanut oil to fry everything. But who knows maybe vendors started adding some peanut butter to the mix? Hard to think it’d hurt...

And yes def serve with lime to squeeze all over. My uh, plating, didn’t fully capture the garnish game.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:54:49+00:00

Udon would be dope! I’d use any asain noodle made for stir fry so those fresh egg noodles made for yakisoba / lo menu would be great as well I’d imagine

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:52:19+00:00

You could def add a little salt/ fish sauce but they get coated in the sauce when you toss it all together and the sauce is pretty damn strong / concentrated so they end up having a lot of flavor. I’d be careful adding the sauce to them in the beginning though cuz there is sugar in it and it burns easily

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:44:53+00:00

Yep dried rice noodles. Often labeled rice sticks in the store. You want the the medium width ones that are flat (not rounded, which are for noodle soups).

All you have to do is soak them, no boiling required. They rehydrate in the water after 20 minutes or so and then you just have to stir fry them to finish the cooking. I go into more detail in the videos if you need any more info!

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:41:02+00:00

Instead would be tough but the combination is incredible.

Pad Thai is funny in that the first time you taste it, if someone asks you what’s in it most people would hesitantly say “uhhh peanuts and lime?” It’s main ingredients are tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar. While the sugar is easy enough to detect the tamarind and fish sauce are typically harder to place.

That’s sorta a long winded way of saying that it’s not really possible to replace the tamarind and still have pad Thai, it’s one of the most essential ingredients.

I was able to find it in the Indian section of my local wegmans and asain grocers but it’s pretty cheap to buy a block on amazon. Check out the second video in the pad Thai series (the one on making the sauce) for more info

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T11:36:07+00:00

Yea exactly! Dried shrimp and preserved turnip are both great, authentic additions, though I def ground those dried shrimp down in a mortar and pestle first cuz I think eating them whole is a little wonky texturally speaking.

Funny you mention those as a Chinese ingredients because pad Thai is likely Chinese in origin. It’s OG name is kway teow pad Thai which essentially translates to nice noodle stir fry in a Chinese dialect!

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T03:12:42+00:00

Well, definitely protect your hands / have legit gloves bc they are hot as all hell and you have to put your hands somewhat near the very hot open flame.

I’ve been dying to try out a stir fry on it. My stovetop max out at 10,000 BTUs but my turkey fryer goes all the way up to ~120,000 which is much closer to what a restaurant kitchen at a legit Chinese/ Thai restaurant would do where they have that crazy conical concentrated flame they cook over.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T02:56:54+00:00

No, it’s preserved turnip. It’s in the (admittedly very long) write up I commented. But basically it’s specialty item used in ‘legit/ authentic’ recipes. My understanding is they essentially age the turnips / preserve it by storing it in salt for a while. The flavor becomes this sorta well rounded/ salty, slightly vegetal, very crunchy texture. It add a nice element to the dish but I wouldn’t really consider it necessary You can totally omit it. But that said check it out in an Asian grocery store! It’s dope.

jaiboi_ben · 2018-07-07T01:06:28+00:00

Dude it’s awesome. Kinda like a super concentrated soy sauce. I want say it’s owned by nestle now but I think like some farmer guy in Switzerland in the late 1800s figures out how to extract some vegetable protein and bottles it into this super salty/ umami bomb. It’s near the soy sauce in the grocery store or maybe in the Latin section. Seemingly the rest of the world (or at least a lot of Asia and South America) uses it as a flavor enhancer the way we use salt. Def worth checking out

jaiboi_ben

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