It happens to everyone. Some days you just shouldn't be in the kitchen. There are signs all around telling you it isn't a good idea, but when you are really excited to cook you sometimes ignore them. Last Friday Mandi and I had BIG plans to make Pad Thai. We have been trying to eat less meat lately so we thought this would be a great meal because you can use tofu as the main protein. We have made a few different Thai dishes including a green curry so we thought this wouldn't be a problem at all.
We used Alton Brown's recipe from the episode "Your Pad or Mine?" (as close as we could)
Here Mandi is cutting the Tofu. We were happy to use it because we have never worked with it at home
Marinade in soy sauce
The Fennel is for the Spring Rolls. We used Fennel, Carrot, Cabbage, and Shallots
This is the Spring Roll mixture.
We also added Fresh Basil, Cilantro, Mint, and Ginger. Just a little of each.
Here are the rice stick noodles waiting to have boiling water dumped on them
Getting the Peanuts ready for the topping.
These are store bought Spring Roll wrappers. It looks like its gonna be great right??
The egg is for in the Pad Thai
This picture inspired me to clean my stove the next morning.
Directly after this picture came the second fail of the night. This was the worst and could have been extremely bad. Now, first off, we deep fry all the time in our apartment and are VERY careful. Unfortunately, I was cheap buying this wok. I had bought it earlier that day for 40 bucks. I was faced with the decision: spend 200 bucks I don't have on an awesome wok that will last a long time, or buy one for 40 bucks and get a real one when I have the money and/or a more permanent residence and larger kitchen. I opted for number 2 and almost burnt my house down. The 400 degree oil went all over the floor and I really thought it was going to light up instantly. We held our breaths for about 10 seconds and then cleaned it all up with towels. Luckily neither of us got hit with the oil and badly burned. Anyways - on with the cooking.
Here we are back in action for fail number 3 of the
night.
Tofu out, Veggies in. Also Failure #4 Mandis camera died. Switching to phone cam
Even with all the failures, this meal was still great. It was just more of a stepping stone to a better Pad Thai in the future. The Spring Roll filling was awesome but the shell was not. We should have fried them in slightly cooler oil for a longer time because the inner parts were still chewy. The Pad Thai was 10 times better microwaved the next day for some reason.
Good Morning!
i think using the wrong noodles also didn't help the feel/flavor of the dish... they didnt have the right kind at the store. i have sausage fingers!!! haha
There's are no failures in food, just areas for improvement. I will NOT accept that you didn't cook something good.
You should let people know what pad thai sauce is like to make, so they aren't scared and horrified when you smell fish sauce and tamarind together.
What a difference in the stove!!
try them cold:) u would only have to cook the water for the noodles and u dont have to fry them once they are wrapped.