For the longest time this was one of my favourite recipes. But when I made it this week I wasn’t so into it.
I had a gold so that probably contributed to it. I also made it in the morning in lieu of going to the gym so I was probably a tad cranky as well. It probably boils down to a lack of lovin’ going into the dish… so don’t be deterred!
I love pad thai. It’s one of my standbys when I go out, almost like comfort food. So for YEARS i’ve been looking for a good and somewhat traditional recipes. Of course that is where the problem starts. When you do some research you learn that the goupy, saucy pad thai that you get in restaurants here isn’t so traditional. So then my goal turned into finding a recipe with more depth in flavour and not a ton of sweetness and sauciness.
A LOT of recipes out there call for Ketchup. While I’m not on a crusade against ketchup or anything I don’t really think it has a place in pad thai. Then some recipes call for linguine noodles. Now THAT I can’t get down with at all. You just don’t make pad thai with pasta.
I was reading the New York Times almost two years ago and came across THIS RECIPE it had all of the signs pointing towards goodness. Rice noodle? Check! No ketchup? Check! Tamarind paste? Check! Perfecto.
I always make a few changes to the recipe. I never use broccoli. I often add some firm or extra firm tofu towards the end for some extra protein. One problem is that sometimes it tastes a bit TOO sour from the tamarind paste. I always forget this until the dish is done but maybe add some extra sugar to the sauce before you add it. I also think this dish could benefit from some extra heat. A scoop of some chili/garlic paste may do the trick if you like things a bit spicy.
Please do try this… I really think it was my lack of appetite and generally downtrodden attitude from my cold this week that didn’t really sell me on it!
