Last weekend I took a trip to the Asian supermarket. I found some great ingredients that will keep me cooking for a while. I brought home some Chinese broccoli, baby bok choy, Thai eggplants, Thai basil, lemongrass, baby purple eggplants, fresh bamboo shoots, fresh bean sprouts, fresh rice noodles, green and red curry pastes, coconut milk, garlic-chili sauce, and dark sweet soy sauce.
I decided the first dish I would put together would be Pad See Ew. Literally translated it means "fried with soy sauce." It is a stir fried rice noodle dish that is popular both as street vendor food in Thailand, and as a traditional Thai restaurant staple here in the United States. The basic ingredients are fresh sheets of rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, garlic, eggs, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and chicken or pork. It is a process similar to making fried rice. It can be made all at the same time in your wok or in a series of steps. I prefer to cook each ingredient separately at first and set it aside as I go so that I can make sure each is cooked the way I want it.
<---I start making the sauce by sauteing garlic in toasted sesame oil. To that I add a few tablespoons each of light and dark soy sauce, and oyster sauce. I bring it to a boil and then taste for seasoning. I usually add about a tablespoon of sugar to lighten up the taste a little bit. 
The chicken, Chinese broccoli, and rice noodles take their turns getting stir fried in sesame oil.
Once the chicken, Chinese broccoli, and rice noodles have been stir fried we can assemble the dish. Everything gets tossed back into the hot wok along with the sauce. I make a opening in the bottom of the wok to add an egg. The egg gets scrambled in the wok and mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. You have to work everything together as fast as you can as the noodles will begin to soak up the sauce and the mixture will begin to thicken up quickly.
Here is the finished product. It is served with traditional Thai condiments such as sriracha (ground chili and garlic sauce).
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Where is the Asian Supermarket? Gotta know, since my husband is half Korean. Maybe that will sweeten the deal to get him to move back to MI.
ReplyDeleteit's cool that you can get fresh Asian vegetables in the dead of Michigan winter. Certainly looks good.
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This looks very good - I do love Thai food and it is almost a staple here in Sydney(more popular than Chinese).
ReplyDeleteYum. This looks very much like what my Mom made for me growing up. I'm sure yours doesn't have the bitter, burned eggy bits like hers, though. :)
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