Pad Thai

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I am a self-proclaimed expert in eating Pad Thai, and now I can make it at home. It was phenomenal and I didn't even use all the ingredients! I substituted Palm sugar for regular, and I didn't use dried shrimp. Next time, I'll trek to the Asian market and get these things just for fun. Because I didn't have palm sugar, it was a little on the watery side, so I added a dash of corn-starch to thicken it. YUMMY dish! Thanks Alton & Food Network for your great recipes!!!

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(I have a crush on Alton Brown.

I didn't put in the shrimp (I'm allergic or cabbage (didnt have and I subbed brown sugar for palm sugar (what IS palm sugar? where do you get it? and that hot chili sauce ("cock sauce" for the ground chili peppers. I also used Tamarind concentrate instead of paste and skipped that straining step.

Yet despite the substitutes, it came out awesomely and tasted like the local Pad Thai at my favorite restaurant. I will be using this recipe again and again.

Love the tofu--it's so worth the steps to have it. Yum.

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In response to Andrew, I made this recipe without fish sauce or tamarind and it still turned out wonderfully.

In place of fish sauce: Rinse and pat dry 8 anchovy fillets then puree them with a bit of peanut oil (I use a mini chopper, but a mortar would work, too

In place of tamarind: 2 tbsp. brown sugar and 2 tbsp. lime juice

Hope this helps!

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Great recipe for a light Pad Thai, very light not heavy and syrupy like cheap pad thai, love it

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Awesome recipe, I didn't use fish sauce and even dried shrimp but it came out very close to the one that we eat at our local thai restaurant.

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alton's recipe is great...but is there an alternative to using fish sauce?

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Kudos to Alton for at least encouraging the average American cook to check out Asian markets. However, here are some corrections to the recipe:

1. Pad Thai is not made with cellophane noodles, not with narrow (thready rice noodles/rice sticks. It is made with flat rice noodles, called "Sen Chan" (Chan Noodles.

2. It is not salted cabbage that's used, but, as Courtney from Atlanta said, sweet salted radish. (Also referred to as preserved radish or turnip. The flavors are NOT interchangeable!

3. You do not have to make your own five-spice tofu. If you're going to an Asian market, the have five-spiced tofu there. (But all you really need is extra firm tofu.

4. Pad thai does NOT have rice wine vinegar. That's not even a condiment that's part of a Thai pantry. That's a Chinese condiment. All the sour comes from the tamarind.

5. Keep things simple. Here are the things your average respectable and sane Thai cook will have nixed from Alton's recipe for sure: peanuts & dried chilli peppers. Don't feel like you have to buy whole peanuts. Just buy a can of roasted unsalted peanuts or, if you're feeling industrious, raw blanched peanuts. (Fresh oven-roasted or pan-toasted peanuts taste amazing. As for the peppers, red pepper flakes will do. If you're a stickler for "authentic," you can buy Thai red pepper flakes from the Asian market too.

I would have rated it as "poor," by my standards, but I have to say that apart from the salted cabbage and rice vinegar gaffes, the sauce actually sounds about right. My biggest gripe, however, is with the noodles. Any respectable pad thai stand would NEVER use the little noodles.

If you want authentic (these are recipes that look mostly like mine check these:

http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Pad_Thai.htm
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/padthai.html

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This recipe is awesome! Due to an unfortunate incident in the kitchen, I had to make this without the tamarind--I'm sure that will make it even better in the future! I upped the veggies and added red bell pepper,, as well as 1 T Sambal Oelek, parsley and cilantro. Wow!

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I've made pad thai using the premade Thai Kitchen sauce lots of times but have always found it too sugary and missing that special something. I saw Alton do this recipe on his show and was intrigued but never felt like messing with the taramind paste. Then, a few weeks ago, I was in the Indian foods section of my local mega-mart and found tamarind concentrate which contained just prestrained tamarind and water (plus some ascorbic acid or something as a preservative. aha!

So last night I pulled up this recipe and followed it almost exactly, substituting the tamarind concentrate for the paste. It came out fabulous! I'm thrilled and will be making this again and again. I will probably increase the amount of tamarind concentrate a bit. (1 oz concentrate was about 2 tablespoons if I remember correctly.

My other personalizations on this recipe: (1 used very fresh sprouted tofu, didn't premarinate it. (2 added an extra egg, (3 used 'raw' or turbinado sugar instead of palm sugar...slightly lowered the amount, (4 no dried shrimp, (5 mixed 1 tbs unsweetened, chunky peanut butted into the sauce instead of peanuts.

Salted cabbage: someone was asking about this...it's easy to make: finely chop the desired amount of fresh cabbage. I used red cabbage which made for a great color! To the 2 teaspoons of cabbage (I used closer to 4 to make up for the lack of dried shrimp add a large pinch of kosher salt and set aside. Do this before you start the tamarind sauce and it will be fine.

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I've made this recipe dozens of times and it's both easy and delicious. My wife and seven year old daughter love it so much I have to make it at least once a week. As far as finding the ingredients, I had no trouble finding them at my local Asian market, and I live in a crummy town in Kentucky. You have to look hard for some things, read the tiny English label on the back of the Asian products, but other than that it's a breeze. I've subbed in both shrimp and chicken at different times for the tofu, and it's great every time. It's far superior to any pad thai I've had at any restaurant. Highly recommended!