Pad Thai

    My latest Cooking Light magazine came full of great ideas so I bookmarked several pages.  This recipe was part of a spread about restaurant favorites and ways to make them healthier at home.  This recipe has a lot less sodium and calories than Pad Thai you would get from a Thai restaurant.  Arnauld was looking through my magazine one night and requested Pad Thai.  We gave it a shot tonight since Pad Thai is one of our favorite things to order when we get Thai food.   It is rare these days that we are both home to make dinner together.  We work well as a team and it was nice making this together. 

Pad Thai

Ingredients
8 oz flat rice noodles
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
2 tbsp canola oil
1 cup green onion pieces
1/2 pound shrimp
1 chicken breast, cut into small bite size pieices
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts, unsalted and chopped

Method
1. Cook noodles by placing them in a bowl of very hot tap water.  Soak them for 35-30 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't stick together.  Drain them before adding to the wok.
2. Combine sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic chili sauce, and lime juice in a small bowl.
3. Heat a wok over medium-high heat.  Add oil and coat the wok.  Add onion, chicken, shrimp, and garlic.  Stir fry these ingredients until the chicken and shrimp is done.  Add cooked noodles and toss in order to combine.
4.  Stir in the sauce and cook for 1 minute.
5.  Arrange noodles in bowls.  Top each serving with 1/4 cup bean sprouts and 1 tbsp of chopped peanuts.

The Taste Test
     Since Arnauld helped in the kitchen tonight, I asked him to contribute to my blog as well with his own "taste test."  Here is what he had to say:

Dear J,

Just shooting you a quick note to let you know how much I enjoyed the Pad Thai tonight. As you know, when it comes to Thai food, the only route I go is Pad Thai. So when I saw the Pad Thai recipe the other night in that healthy cooking magazine that you subscribe to (sorry, too lazy to get up to check the name), I knew we had to try it out this weekend. It came out great. I was curious to see how the fish sauce would work into the recipe, and I was surprised to find out that, as bad as it smelled, I don’t think I even tasted it (I think it functions to bring out the flavor in the other ingredients, not that I’m a culinary expert or anything). The chili sauce added a great kick to it, and the noodles were on the al dente end of the spectrum (a plus for me). Best of all, it tasted like my favorite Pad Thai dishes (from Pan Thai and Brown Sugar, both in Boston), but a lot lighter (not that I’m big into eating light, but I’m sure the ladies that read this blog will be pumped about it). Great job, J. Keep up the good work in the kitchen, because it’s reflecting well on this blog.

I love you,
@