Oscar Night Thai Feast!

I'm so into asparagus right now. They're selling bunches two for a dollar at the local meat market. That's right folks, you can buy it at whole foods for $3.99 a pound or at McKinnons for 50 cents.

Tonight we're having guests over and we'll be making pad thai with fried tofu, asparagus, radish, and coconut grilled shrimp tonight! We'll wash it down with some approximation of thai iced tea, which is strongly brewed almond vanilla roobois with half and half and RAINBOW BUBBLES. Yes! After going to Brighton (unsuccessfully I might add) for bubbles, they were right around the corner at Tea Zone, my new favorite place.

We used a recipe from a Thai Kitchen cookbook, then added plenty of veggies. First, the sauce:
vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
any combination of meat, shrimp, veggies (6-12 oz)
1tbsp minced garlic (or less)
3 tbs sugar
1tbs lime juice
2.5 tbs Thai fish sauce (I had to be convinced on this one, but it's really an essential part of the dish. Equal parts salty, sweet, and smelly- it's a hard sell, but go for it.)
1tsp paprika
1tbs rice vinegar
Unsalted peanuts, chopped
bean sprouts for garnish (optional)
Thai basil for garnish (optional)
radishes for garnish (optional)
lime wedges
cilantro, if you're into that sort of thing (personally, yuck)

The sauce looks and smells very pungent, but keep in mind that the little bowl covered a pound of noodles and probably another pound of veggies. The beautiful brick color is from the paprika.


In a small bowl, whisk and set aside:
3 tbs sugar
1tbs lime juice
2.5 tbs Thai fish sauce (I had to be convinced on this one, but it's really an essential part of the dish. Equal parts salty, sweet, and smelly- it's a hard sell, but go for it.)
1tsp paprika
1tbs rice vinegar

Now, prep the rice noodles. You can either boil them for 6-8 minutes, or just let them soak for an hour. I prefer the soaking method, although it made me really nervous at first. When the noodles are done soaking, and until several minutes in the wok, they're still very papery. I wish the cookbook had told us that. Don't worry, though- they become chewy and soft quickly.
We fried up some tofu to put in the pad thai. It crackled and sizzled and became crunchy and chewy. Observe:

Now you need:
vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
any combination of meat, shrimp, veggies (6-12 oz)
1tbsp minced garlic (or less)

When the noodles are ready, start up your wok or very large frying pan. Sautee the beaten egg, stirring and chopping frequently. Remove from pan and set aside. Sautee your veggies and proteins until almost cooked. Add noodles and sauce and stir-fry until everything is well-cooked. Add in the cooked egg and stir. Serve immediately with lime wedges, peanuts, bean sprouts, and any other garnishes that sound good to you. We also garnished with radishes because they're so pretty, with their unexpected hot pink dash of color.