Sunday, August 7, 2011

Pad See-Ew

I grew up eating a lot of Thai food since my mom is from Thailand.  My FAVORITE Thai dish is Pad See-Ew (which is loosely translated into stir-fry with soy sauce).  For some reason, I never thought I would be able to make it.  It seemed too complicated.  As I'm expanding my cooking repertoire and gaining more confidence, I decided to give it a try.  My main challenge is that it's harder for me to find the ingredients here in NJ.  I went to two different Asian grocery stores in search of the supplies I needed.  Luckily, I found what I needed at the 2nd grocery store, which happens to have a lot of Thai products.

The two ingredients that were tricky to find were sweet soy sauce and Chinese broccoli (also called kai-lan).  You could substitute regular broccoli for the Chinese broccoli, but I'm a purist and it's one of my pet peeves when Thai restaurants use American broccoli for this dish.  I don't think there is a substitute for the sweet soy sauce though.  The one I used is a product of Thailand.  It says "sweet sauce" on the back of the bottle and on the front it says "Kwong Hung Seng Sauce" with a picture of a dragonfly.  You'll probably have to go to an Asian grocery store to find it and look in the section with soy sauces.  When I made this, I also used fresh rice noodles, which I found at the Asian grocery store, but dried noodles will also do just fine and I think they are easier to find.  Look in the Asian food aisle of your grocery store for a package of dried rice noodles.  I'm giving you the recipe using dried noodles since you probably have a better chance of finding them.   

Without further ado, here's the recipe for Pad See-Ew:

Ingredients:
1 lb. wide or thin rice noodles
3 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
6 cloves chopped garlic
3 eggs, at room temperature
3 tbsp low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce
3 tbsp thick, sweet soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic chili sauce
dash of black pepper
1/2 lb. beef, sliced into thin strips
4 stalks Chinese broccoli



Pickled jalapeno peppers (Soak sliced jalepeno peppers (cut into 1/4 inch rings) in white vinegar for 2 or more hours)


Directions:
1. Soak rice noodles in room temperature water until soft and pliable.
2. Cut Chinese broccoli into pieces that are about 3 inches long.  Cut stems by slicing diagonally to ensure even cooking.
3. Mix together low sodium soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sugar, garlic chili sauce, and black pepper in a small bowl.
4.  Heat oil on high setting in a deep pan or wok.
5.  Add the garlic and cook until browned (not burnt).  Add eggs and scramble together with the garlic.  Break up the egg as it cooks.  Once eggs are cooked and pieces are slightly browned, add the beef.
6.  Once beef is mostly cooked through, add the Chinese broccoli.  Continue to cook on high heat until meat and eggs develop a slight char and broccoli has wilted.
7. Add the noodles and pour the soy sauce mixture over the noodles.  Fold the noodles and the sauce in with the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well.
8.  Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately with pickled chili sauce.  

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