Shrimp Pad Thai

This dish is a hit with our family and friends. The tamarind paste is a critical flavor. At first I was put off with it -- it isn't a paste so much as it is a gooey fibrous excretion. I take more than suggested and then cut through it from every direction with a sharp knife and then I squish it with my mortar and pestle.

Make a double recipe if you can and freeze the rest for a day when you are short of time and are tempted by takeout. This reheats well and beats anything local.

Easy and very pretty. The husband liked it, the kid loved it. To my taste buds, this was quite bland. I will absolutely make it again, with some tweaks: quadruple the garlic, ginger and tamarind, sub coconut oil for some/all of the canola, and use a greater variety of veggies. I made this in a nonstick pan, but in future, I will get a wok or cook this in our cast iron skillet. Having some portion of the noodles nicely caramelized and "pot-stuck" is essential to the texture of Pad Thai.

Link is incorrect. This is the right one: http://www.thekitchn.com/technique-how-to-use-tamarind-90339

I doubled the tamarind sauce and it was the perfect amount of saucy. I put my tamarind paste in hot water with the rest of the sauce ingredients and pureed it with my immersion blender. I didn't use broccoli as I've never had Pad Thai with broccoli before and I added some firm pan fried tofu for the non-shrimp eaters in our family. This makes a pretty decent Pad Thai, though definitely plan ahead for the 1 hour noodle soak, and prep your ingredients before so everything is ready to go.

Palm sugar is best for the sweet of sweet, sour, salty, & spicy (hot). I get tamarind paste from Amazon.

Fresh bean sprouts: better than canned.

Chili oil for more heat.

Alternate noodle prep: Pour boiling water over them, drain in 5 min, rinse cold.

Try green beans, lemon grass, or other vegetables. Keep morsels small.

Combine shrimp with pork or chicken, or leave meat out.

When the recipe calls for X eggs, I use X+1. Cook them with a bit of soy sauce and set aside.

1) Recipe as presented is good but too mild to my tastes, even with addition of 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes to the recipe. I preferred it with the addition of some additional Tsang Szechuan Spicey stir fry sauce( hot pepper, onion, ginger and garlic) which I added to taste at the table. (2) Tamarind paste a bit hard to find and use, but per my reading very important to final product. Suggest reading at www.thekitchen.com/technique-how-to-use-tamarind for this part of recipe.

Great recipe but double the sauce. My tamarind comes in a brick and it's so sticky and fibrous that I heat up the water called for in step 1 and pour that hot water over the tamarind in a bowl. Work the tamarind paste into the water with a whisk or fork until it dissolves into a smooth liquid. Despite my tamarind being advertised as "seedless" it has seeds. I strain those out once it's dissolved then continue on making the sauce by adding lime juice, fish sauce and sugar.

I agree with all that wanted to add more sauce - I found this recipe to be dry and really bland, so I had to add to it toward the end - doubled the sauce. I wish people wouldn't rate something 5 stars if they are changing the recipe in order for it to taste good.

The one tweak I would recommend is cutting the shrimp into bite-size chunks...

I also add spinach leaves and chopped red pepper.

So the vast majority of people in Thailand don't make pad thai at home because it really is street food and, to make it properly, requires good ingredients, technique, and the right tools. http://shesimmers.com/2011/05/pad-thai-recipe-part-one-pan-and.html has an excellent 5 part series on making pad thai at home even though, as she says, it often effort than it's worth. This looks like it might be alright but I would hesitate to call it pad thai.

https://www.verywell.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4129594?ref=cc

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 4 (402g)
Per Serving % Daily Value*
Calories 595
Total Fat 37.7g 58%
Saturated Fat 4g 20%
Trans Fat 0.1g
Cholesterol 267mg 89%
Sodium 826mg 34%
Potassium 785mg 22%
Total Carb 36.4g 12%
Dietary Fiber 5.3g 21%
Sugars 9.4g
Protein 32g

Suggestions: The tamarind paste critical. Cut through it with a knife then squish with mortar and pestle. Quadruple the garlic, ginger, tamarind, sub coconut oil for some/all of canola, and use a greater variety of veggies. Cook this in cast iron skillet. Having some portion of the noodles nicely caramelized and "pot-stuck" is essential to the texture of Pad Thai. Double tamarind sauce. Put tamarind paste in hot water with the sauce ingredients and puree with immersion blender.

Delicious, but requires using an awful lot of pans and bowls.

I'd recommend using the Middle Eastern style of tamarind, that's already strained.

As to substitutions for tamarind...found this on the web:
Tamarind paste has a strong fruity body, so in desperate times, if pomegranate molasses is also an impossibility, I'd go for a very high quality lemon marmalade, or mango chutney, or any other sweet-tart fruity mix. They won't have the same depth as the tamarind, but they will do the trick.