The other day I discovered this cookbook by Ming Tsai in my collection. I got it from work once upon a time and had never ever used it. I was leafing through and came across this recipe for curried noodles with shrimp and thought it sounded delicious. I was kind of looking for something in my life that would taste like the Curried Pad Thai from Spring Rolls here in Toronto. So I decided to give it a try.
What I liked about it was the idea of making my own curry paste. The ingredients weren’t so crazy so I decided to give it a shot.
GOOD LORD. I made this recipe from start to finish in one shot and it literally took me about 2 hours! I kid you not. It was intense. The results were delicious but was the most time consuming thing I’ve made in ages. The issue is the chopping. There are a lot of things to be cut up. I guess I could have used the mini chopper but I’m a fan of doing things with my hands.
The upside about the sauce is that the recipe makes a TON so I have leftovers to make this dish again or I can use it with shrimp or chicken in a stir fry or something else. So NEXT time I make this it won’t take that long.
Here’s a link to the recipe on the Food Network site. It’s a simplified version of what’s in the cookbook. The cookbook wants you to do all sorts of crazy things like using whole spices and grinding them. Um, no! No more work than necessary please.
I didn’t make a ton of variations in the recipe. I used less bok choy and added mushrooms and firm tofu to the mix. Make it if you don’t mind sacrificing HOURS from your life. Oh! And be careful with the salt. Fish sauce is salt so don’t add more salt until you taste things.
