Thai Night....the main dish!

Before I get to last night's main dish, I wanted to share a giveaway that a friend of mine is having on her blog!  Please be sure to stop by The Nest and check it out!  She's giving away a set of Rachel Ray bakeware...how cool is that????   Regardless of the giveaway, you gotta check her site out. She makes the most amazing bake goods, and I aspire to be half as creative as she is with them!

So last night, I made Pad Thai for this first time for Rick and I.  I was a little surprised that I hadn't made it for us before, but it is a lot of work...especially in the chopping of cilantro leaves department.  It's worth the effort, though.  We really enjoyed it.

The first time that I ever tried Thai food was here in Charleston at Basil, and the first dish that I tried was Pad Thai.  Not too long after that, I went searching the internet for a Pad Thai recipe.  I came across this one, and I made it for the first time in August 2003 (according to the date at the bottom of the page in my old internet recipe notebook).  I was really apprehensive since it had ketchup and Worcestershire as ingredients, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually did taste similar to Pad Thai from Basil!

Here's what I did.

Pad Thai

Ingredients

• 1 (6 oz) package rice noodles
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce (sambal oelek)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb thinly sliced chicken breast
• 1/2 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (21-25 count)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup bean sprouts
  
• 4 green onions
  
• 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (unsalted)

Directions

Place noodles in large bowl and cover with boiling water for about 10 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Mix together fish sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire, chili-garlic sauce and sugar in a medium size bowl and set aside.

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces.  Cut shrimp into thirds.

Heat peanut oil in large frying pan or wok.  Add garlic and chicken to the wok and cook until the meat starts to turn white.  Add shrimp and continue to cook until they start to turn pink.  Add sauce and stir for 3 minutes.  Add the beaten eggs and stir constantly for 1 minute.

Add drained noodles and stir to coat the noodles.  Stir in bean sprouts, onions and 1/2 cup cilantro.

Place on a plate and top with cilantro and chopped peanuts.  Serve with lime wedges (squeeze lime juice on the Pad Thai prior to eating).

Enjoy!