Traditional Pad Thai

So Mandi has encouraged me to teach myself all that I can before doing an apprenticeship or going to cooking school. So I have made a large agenda that is organized into groups of foods I am most interested in cooking. Each week I will try to a different themed dish with different ingredients using different cooking methods. So I will keep everyone posted on how it is going. Thus far I have made this dish since Thai cuisine was first my list to tackle. I make Thai cuisine alot however I really need to dive deep into the traditional sauces, pastes, flavors, meats, veggies, and try to get the entire picture. I have such a small grasp on food because there is so much to learn and so seemingly infinite combinations of ingredients. I know I can not tackle every type of cuisine or learn every dish so I thought I would do 5 dishes from each category, Asian, Mediterranean, Italian, Latin, and Cajun/Creole. I have cooked pad thai before with my own little twists but this time I used traditional tamarind sauce and man it was good.

Here are some pics of the pad thai I cooked I will post ingredients and how to do everything sometime this week. I have also started to write down every portion I use while cooking so I can keep track of things better and explain ingredients and amounts in a more precise way.

Ingredients for main dish:

These portions are for smaller batches as you may not have enough heat to maintain a proper stir fry environment.

1/3 lb chicken breast or shrimp
About 3/4 cup zucchini and yellow squash chopped into smaller pieces, snap peas added to this mix, or any other veggies like hot peppers, bell peppers, mushrooms etc.
Crushed peanuts
1 lb nice noodle soaked for about 40 minutes in cold water. You do not want them to be cooked as they will finish cooking as you cook. You want to do this so that the noddles don't fall apart when stir frying.
Fish sauce
4-5 garlic cloves minced
3 shallots cut thin
3 eggs beaten
3 cups bean sprout optional, I did have any on hand so I used a bit more veggies.
1 cup scallions
8 Tbsp Pad Thai sauce
High burn point oil

Tamarind water:
1 Tbsp tamarind paste
1/4 cup warm water
You will need to quadruple this in order to get the full cup you will need for the Pad Thai sauce. But this is the ratio in which to use.

Step 1: Mix tamarind paste well into warm water for about 5 minutes or until completely mixed. Strain to remove fibers and seeds.

Pad Thai Sauce:
1 cup Tamarind water
1/2 cup fish sauce
1 cup palm sugar
1 cup water

Step 1:
Mix all together and cook on low heat for 45 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Pad Thai sauce should never be runny but not too think.

Main dish

Step 1:
Heat wok smoking hot with about 1/2 Tbsp oil, put protein in and stir fry adding about 1 tsp fish sauce. Do not cook all the way, just sear and set to the side. Heat wok back up now put your veggies in and stir fry with another 1/2 Tbsp oil for about 5 minutes or until veggies are done but still have a slight crunch. Put protein back in stir fry for about 30 seconds, throw in garlic, shallots and toss for another 20 seconds. If you need to add a tad more oil do so now. Put in a hand full of noodles into the wok, mix around well, add pad thai sauce, bean sprouts and toss for another minute. Move mixture to the side and add egg, cook up egg, cut it up with the wok spatula and then mix the egg well in the dish.

Serve up with lime wedges and crushed peanuts on top.