Tonight’s dinner is pretty special. I have eaten a lot of pad thai in my life, and most of it has been take-out/delivery. While it certainly hits the spot, I learned about the power of freshness in Thai food when I worked at Pok Pok in NYC. Pad thai, when it comes right out of the pan and on to your plate, is like magic. Tonight, we did all the heavy lifting for you, so you can experience how deliciously life-changing fresh pan fried noodles can be. Get in there!
For the pad thai:
Get a pot of water on for your noodles!
While you wait for it to boil, let’s unpack your bag. You will have aromatics and tofu, veggies, pad thai sauce, shrimp, chili peanuts, fried shallots, noodles, and eggs. First, heat a large (large!) saute pan over medium high heat. Coat the pan with a generous amount of oil, and wait for it to get hot.
Once it’s nice and hot, remove the lime from your aromatics and tofu box (this will be used at the end), and toss in the contents. Give them a stir so they sit evenly in the pan, and let them fry for a few minutes.
At this point, the water should be boiling, so break your noodles in half, and drop them in. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Once noodles are in, and aromatics and tofu are searing, lower the heat on the pan to medium low. You want to caramelize these ingredients!
Once the timer is up, strain out the noodles and set them aside. Bring your pan back up to high heat, add the veggies box, and stir to combine.
Next, make some space in the pan by pushing aside the veggies, add a bit more oil, and crack the eggs in there! Let them fry for a minute or two, and once the whites begin to harden, scramble them up and toss them in.
Now, you can add the noodles! Let them fry for a minute, then add a splash or two of the pad thai sauce. Reduce the sauce, tossing to coat the noodles, and then add the shrimp. Remove from the heat, portion into bowls, and garnish with chili peanuts, fried shallots, and a squeeze of lime. That’s it!
For the beets:
Nothing! They’re ready 🙂 dig on in!
Dinner served, dinner solved.
