Pad Thai from my Thai Cooking class... excellent ~

I took a Thai cooking class in Boston over a year ago, and have been wanting to make this dish ever since, it's delicious.

However, I have been unable to find perserved turnip anywhere.  Even though I have one of the largest Asian stores and Chinatown is ten minutes away, still no luck.  Of course, my not being able to read Chinese, put a damper on most of the products I looked at.  I do think  though after my long search that Thai products aren't as available in Boston as Asian products.
 
So I decided to just skip it and am happy to report back, that it's still a wonderful dish without it.  I made it for a few friends and they loved it.

And easy too.  To me, that's the important part.  This dish comes together in about five minutes, so have everything ready ahead of time.  I also made a simple stir fry of pea pods to serve with it and it was a nice addition.

Ingredients:

Pad Thai Sauce:

2 cups of sugar
1 cups of fish sauce
1 cup of vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan, bring to a boil and lower to simmer for 10 minutes.  Set aside.

Rice Noodles:

Soak rice noodles in a big bowl of warm water on counter for about 1 hour ahead of time.  Don't worry if the noodles don't appear soft enough to add, they soften up when you are cooking the Pad Thai.


Each serving below, is really enough for small plates.

1 T. vegetable or canola oil
1/4 cup pad thai sauce
1 egg, whisked
Cooked medium to large shrimp (6-8 large)*
chopped green onion (green parts only)
Handful of bean sprouts
Handful of roasted peanuts, crushed a bit in a food processor

In a large non stick skillet or wok, add and heat oil.  Add egg and stir gently.  Add shrimp, stir together.  Add a handful of drained noodles, stir until combined well.  Add bean sprouts, scallion and peanut.  Add pad thai sauce and stir well.

Divide onto two plates, sprinkle with scallion, more peanuts and a wedge of lime.

*If you are not a shrimp lover, then you can do a cubed breast of chicken.  Our instructor put a pot of simmering (not rapid boil), of water and put the chicken in the water for about 30 seconds to cook, then drained them to put in the the Pad Thai.

Enjoy ~