An exquisite balance of flavours makes pad Thai one of Thailand’s best-loved dishes. Grab your wok and follow our guide to getting it just right.
Essential elements
You can alter the flavours and ingredients of pad Thai – which means ‘Thai-style frying’ – to suit yourself, but there are four essential elements, which you must include. They’re designed to stimulate all the tastebuds, so you can alter the ratio but don’t leave one out!
Salt… natural salts in Thai cooking come from fish sauce, soy sauce and dried shrimp.
Sweet… the addition of palm sugar or other sugar is essential to get a good balance.
Sour… from tamarind and lime juice.
Hot… use fresh green or red chillies to taste.
A fifth taste used in all Asian and Oriental cookery, umami is a natural form of MSG flavouring that occurs in some foods (including fish sauce and dried shrimp), which enhances all the other flavours when you cook with them
Ingredients
Major supermarkets stock some of these essential Thai ingredients, otherwise visit an Oriental store or buy online at Wing Yip.
Rice noodles
Use rice noodles for an authentic flavour and texture, and try different thicknesses.
Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
Made from fermented fish, this is essential to Asian cooking as it adds the saltiness you need. Vegetarians can use soy sauce.
Dried shrimp
The shrimps are sun-dried and add a salty umami flavour. It’s a good idea to soak them in warm water for about 20 minutes before using.
Tamarind paste
Made from the pulp of the tamarind fruit, this has a tangy, sweet-and-sour taste.
Peanuts
Use roughly chopped, unsalted, roasted peanuts to give a nice crunch to the finished dish.
Palm sugar
Made from the sap of coconut palms, this can be solid, soft or gooey, and light or dark brown. Its rich, creamy sugariness is perfect in Thai cooking. You can use soft brown sugar instead.
Beansprouts
Add these at the end of cooking for crunch and texture.
Small prawns
Small, cooked prawns are perfect for this quick-cook dish.
Thai shallots
These flavourful red onions have garlic-like bulbs. You can also use regular shallots.
Spring onions
These give the finished dish a little crunch and colour.
Fresh Coriander
Coriander’s pungent, fresh, aromatic taste is delicious with the flavours of pad Thai.
Lime
It’s essential to serve pad Thai with lime wedges.
Chillies
Small Thai red chillies are super-hot: be careful they don’t drown out the other flavours.
Soaking the noodles
Soak the noodles rather than pre-cooking, so they keep some of their natural texture. Soak in warm, not boiling water for up to 30 minutes until they’re softened and bendy, but not squishy.
Ready to go
It’s important to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go, as the cooking time for pad Thai is very quick – you don’t want to have to stop halfway through to chop or slice.
Sweet-and-sour paste
This is a mixture of tamarind, water, fish sauce and palm sugar. Get the taste right before you start cooking – you are looking for a salty hit, followed by a mild sourness and soft sweetness.
Serve with…
The perfect accompaniment to the noodles is a tart, crisp green papaya salad. It has a great crunchy texture, which contrasts well with the soft rice noodles. Look out for green papayas in Asian food shops and Waitrose.
Peel a green papaya and cut in half lengthways. Remove the seeds and shred the flesh on a coarse grater. Place in a bowl and toss well with 1 small red chilli, finely chopped, ½ tsp salt, the juice of 1 lime, 1 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tbsp sugar. Just before serving, toss through a small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped, and serve with the pad Thai.
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