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Lush green and elephants to boot err ride! |
Please do not club me. I beg of you, yes you, the Thai mamas, papas, grandpas, grannies and all the rest of you down to the chubby little Thai baby (how I adore you, sweet baby, coochicoo). Ah yes not to be left out, the lovers of all things dinkum Thai. This recipe I am going to share with you is not authentically Thai (so I have read in some places).
My defence is weak and I feel wobbly. I blame it all on my gluttony. No actually on second thoughts, on the yummy taste of this hybrid noodle dish called Pad Se Ew. I have read that this dish does not even exist in Siam of yore, that it was developed by some bored Thai chef out to wow his Western clientèle. What can I say, take a bow bored chef.
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The sea and those gorgeous colours! |
On a serious note, cuisines do get distorted or shall we politely say influenced by the place where they are being served. Take the instance of Balti cuisine. I am sure by now non UK folks are frowning darkly thinking I am cracking odd jokes cos Balti means bucket in Hindi and Bengali. No sadly it is no joke, there is a whole cuisine under this Balti genre, which they pass off as Indian. And in one word the Balti food is HORRIBLE. Now if we, the Indians living in the UK can digest the unpalatable
Balti cuisine, your Pad Se Ew is a million times better. No make that a trillion times. I am know at this stage you must be thinking 'but you have not yet tasted our authentic food'. I agree hundred percent, but you see beggars cannot be choosers and the yearnings of a gastronomic slut* have to be satisfied.
I love Thai food or whatever version of it we get here in the UK. I am sure that if and when I do visit this tropical paradise I will love Amazing Thailand too. But for now lets go back to the food, shall we? So in the Thai restaurants in the UK we get this noodle dish called Pad Se Ew which I have read means noodles stir fried in Soya Sauce. I do not know how original it is, but we, i.e. my husband and me, we lurve it. Yes we lurve it, me a little less, he a little more. You see I lost my heart to Pad Thai long ago and remain ever faithful to it. So since whenever we visit Thai restaurants (which is often) I always order Pad Thai and my husband Pad Se Ew. Okay so he sometimes orders Thai Red Curry, Green Curry, Jade Curry (Jade curry? Yes I remember it was Jade Curry and no, it was not jade in colour), but that is besides the point. To get back to the Pad Se Ew, I err sneak away some of the noodles from his plate and I love what I sneak off. It was getting to the point where I was almost finishing off half of his plate, much to my husband's growing horror. Of course such a situation could not be allowed to continue and since I refuse to order anything other than Pad Thai (hey I also go for variety, sometimes I order chicken and other times shrimp), I settled on the second best option. I decided to learn how to make Pad Se Ew at home. Went through several video demos in the youtube (may you live long), finally found this video by a young Thai American or will it be American Thai? Oh well whatever. He was precise, concise and knew what he was doing. Decided to follow him and now I can make Pad Se Ew at home and it is finger lickin' good.
Sadly the video is no longer on youtube, but I had the recipe jotted down, sharing it. The photographs I have shared here are of course of authentic Thailand, taken by a friend on their trip.
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Tribal Performance....
The photos are beautiful, aren't they? I especially love this last photo....what a space...a balcony is such a beautiful place. Back home, the balcony of my parents' house is my most favourite part of the house.
This place looks perfect for an al fresco meal, doesn't it? Why not sit back and relax with some Thai iced tea, while I quickly fix us some Pad Se Ew.
But I hate working in the kitchen alone, so I will keep the windows open and we can chat while I put the noodles together. What? Oh you want me to tell you about the ingredients that I need for this.
To make this noodle dish you need:
- 300 gms of boiled, boneless chicken, shredded
- Thai rice sticks around 250 gm, prepared as per instructions on the back of the packet
- 3 eggs, beaten
- Veggies-- carrots, bak choy, bean sprouts, kai-lan....whatever your heart fancies....
- 1 fat chilli chopped
- Juice of half a lime
- 4 cloves of garlic pods
- 2 tea spoons of dark soya sauce
- 1 tea spoon of oyster sauce
- 1 tea spoon fish sauce
- 1 tea spoons of brown sugar
- 2 tea spoons of vegetable/sunflower oil
- Few drops of sesame oil
- Crushed peanuts, cilantro, bean sprouts, lime wedge & chilli flakes for garnishing
Once you have assembled all of this, chopping all those veggies takes a wee bit of time. Time to switch on the gas.
Take a wok, heat the oil, add the garlic, once they sizzle, and & fry the shredded chicken pieces till light brown, move all of it to one side, add the beaten eggs and scramble them, now add the veggies, fry them for a couple of minutes, add the sauces and the sugar, mix well. Then add the noodles, a little at a time, mixing well as you add. Mix everything well, check the taste and adjust according to taste. Switch off the heat and add the lime juice, a final toss and the noodle is ready.
Garnish with cilantro, chilli flakes, cilantro and bean sprouts and serve hot.
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* Borrowed the phrase from a friend!
Hi Suchi ,
ReplyDeletelooks AAwesome !!!
Neat presentation :)
Keep on Dear..
www.southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.in
Thanks :-)
DeleteI enjoyed reading the post I liked what u have written about the influence on authentic food and the region. I have come across rajma chawal in the south with curry leaves tadka and don't even ask about the sambar made in the north .. lol
ReplyDeleteI like Thai food and have never had the Ew before :), will give it a try after 'shravan'
Sometimes fusion food can become alarming! :-)
Deleteenjoyed all your clicks.. excellent presentation.. i am your follower :) do stop by mine sometime..
ReplyDeletehttp://jopreet.blogspot.com/
Hi PT, welcome to Kitchen Karma, sure will do :-)
Deletereally beautiful clicks ar amar jodi ekta eirokom khoola baranda hoto tahole ami boi niye dupure boshe boshe portam...Tai food ta notun amar jonne..bhalo hoyeche dekhte
ReplyDeleteAmar o barnada darun lage, eei chobi ta dekhe theke ami ei baranda ta ar prem ee pore gechi :-)
DeletePerfectly okay to improvise, Suchi. That's where new recipes are born. :)
ReplyDeleteTrue Nancy :-)
DeleteHi Suchi, wow... it look so delicious. I would love to help you in the kitchen including washing the dishes too. And then have a nice bowl of chicken Pad Se Ew with a nice cup of tea in your beautiful balcony. If you don't mind I would love to have second helping. LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the beautiful pictures.
Have a nice day,regards.
And I would love to spend all that time with you Amelia :-)
Deletebeautiful clicks and yummy food..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indiantastyfoodrecipes.com
Thanks Rekha :-)
DeleteGreat shots! Love the colours of your photography and these dishes are great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Alida :-)
Deletethey are beatiful and the balcony is just perfect to seat/read/eat - optionally whatever you like! amazing!
ReplyDeleteBlog about life and travelling
Blog about cooking
Thanks Ola :-)
DeleteMmmmmmmm ! Coochicoo ?! hahahhaha That pad se ew looks delish ! Sort of like char kway teow of Malaysia and Singapore :D Great read as usual , Suchi !
ReplyDeleteThanks Anne :-)
DeleteBeautiful presentation and awesome pictures..
ReplyDeleteThanks Hema :-)
Deletelove this post Suchismita and that balcony looks so serene. I dream to have a space like this sometime. pad se ew looks comforting. love the flavours.
ReplyDeleteI have similar dreams too Sayantani :-)
DeleteHermosos y saludables vegetales me encantan,sería muy feliz estar al lado de los elefantes los amo ,post maravilloso,abrazos hugs,hugs.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rosita :-)
DeleteLooks good
ReplyDeletehttp://www.followfoodiee.com/
Thanks :-)
Deletenice presentation... lovely clicks
ReplyDeleteThanks Manjooo :-)
DeleteThanks for sharing these beautiful pictures,I'm a big fan of Thai foods,especially the noodles dishes and homemade, even better,great recipe thanks for sharing !!
ReplyDeleteMe too, I am a big fan of Thai food :-)
DeleteI'm not very familiar with thai food ......this one sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh give it a try, Thai food is awesome, there are some lovely Thai restaurants in Toronto, or there used to be when I lived there :-)
Deletei love pad se ew! i've never tried making it myself, so i'm super excited for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteDo give it a try Jenn and let me know how it went :-)
DeleteSuchi what lovely pictures! I love this dish!x
ReplyDeleteThanks Gloria :-)
Deletecomforting food and nice post !
ReplyDeleteThanks Priya :-)
DeleteStunning clicks and so is the recipe! I would love to go visit Thailand sometime :)
ReplyDeleteAs always, such lovely writing and a recipe that's left my stomach growling. :-)
ReplyDeleteAre you enjoying the olympic maddness?
*Susan
Hi Suchi ,
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious !!!
And Do collect your
SunShine Blog Award at
www.southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.in
EnjoYYYY !!!!
Hi ,
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious !!!
And Do collect your
SunShine Blog Award at
www.southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.in
EnjoYYYY !!!!
Oh beautiful :) Look how happy those cheeky elephants are!
ReplyDelete