Phad Thai

Seriously, who doesn't love a good phad thai? It's delicious and so easy to make. It's also a dish of unlimited versatility that can be customized dozens of ways. Well, ok, I guess dozens isn't really unlimited...

If you've never made phad thai before, I have one very important tip:

Prep all your ingredients in advance. Similar to my sesame chicken recipe, this is a dish that can take a good amount of prep, but once it's cooking it cooks fast. It's so much easier to have everything measured, sliced, diced, and ready to go. You'll sometimes hear this referred to as Mise en Place, and is a great way to be an organized cook.

Ramekins are great for mise en place cooking!

For this rendition, I had to mix things up a bit. I didn't have any peanut oil. Thought I did, but I didn't. Peanut is a pretty essential flavor component for it to be considered phad thai. So, here's what I started with:

• 1 TBS Sesame Oil
• 1 TBS Canola Oil
• 1 TBS Peanut Oil

Sesame oil can have a very strong flavor, so I cut it with the canola oil, and added the peanut butter for the obvious peanut flavoring. I heated up the two oils and then added the peanut butter and let it melt. I then threw in a serrano for a little heat, and three garlic cloves. After that sauteed a bit I added some green onion, finely sliced radish and bok choy stem from my CSA, as well as some of yesterday's leftover pork.

I let that all cook for just a couple minutes and then added the sauce. The sauce is 2 TBS soy sauce, 2 TBS fish sauce, 1 TBS ketchup (or ideally make your own), 1/4 cup raw brown sugar, and the juice of half a lime. Stir it up, then add your prepared rice noodles. I prepared 6oz dry noodles, which honestly was almost a little too much for this amount of sauce. 4oz would probably have been better. Mix it all in and let cook for about a minute while the noodles soak up that saucy goodness.

When ready to serve, top however you like! Peanuts, bean sprouts, and cabbage are traditional. I had none of those things, so I topped with pea shoots, cilantro, red pepper flakes, green onion, and an extra slice of lime.

Can I get an Aww Yiss