How to Make Vegan Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a tricky dish to make. I've tried to make it many times, many variations of ingredients, sometimes changing as little as 1 ingredient or method at a time, akin to a science experiment. There were many failures: undercooked noodles, overcooked mushy noodles, not the right combination of flavour, etc, etc.

Yesterday, I finally created Pad Thai that I am actually proud to call Pad Thai. I'll outline the tricks and tips along the way, so you don't have to go through countless bags of banh pho noodles as I have.

Ingredients:

1/4 pack of banh pho rice noodles (I prefer the thinner width noodles; usually the package contains 2 bundles of noodles, I made 1 of them, but only used about half of that)
1 garlic clove
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup of firm or medium-firm tofu
1 shallot
1/2 cup Chinese chives
 1/2 cup bean sprouts
3 heaping teaspoons tamarind sauce
4 teaspoons soy sauce (or vegetarian fish sauce if you can find it)
2 sort of heaping teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek (chilli sauce, the less ingredients the better, you can see the flakes as well) 
3 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons crushed peanuts

Yield: approximately 2 servings. (or just 1 if you eat very large servings) 

Directions:

1. Soak the noodles in warm water for about 15-20 minutes. They should be a bit hard to the touch (so not cooked yet) but be able to bend (ie not retain their package shape). Tip: It is super important that you DO NOT use boiling water, as this over softens the noodles and you could end up with a rather nasty, mushy mess later.

2. Take your half of block of tofu, wrap it in an absorbent paper towel, place it on a plate or cutting board and place something flat, but heavy right on top. This squeezes out the excess water, so that it can fry better in the pan. (f you want smaller bits of breakable tofu resembling egg in your Pad Thai, you can use medium-soft tofu (still squeeze the water) and cook it akin to scrambled eggs, breaking it up into little pieces untill they all turn golden. If using firm tofu, cut into small cubes and fry till golden brown in a large flat skillet (Having a large flat surface is important for cooking Pad Thai evenly, you will understand why in Step 4) on medium-high heat.

3. While the tofu is turning golden (a minute or 2 on each side), finely dice the garlic and shallot, and cut the chives in 1.5-2 inch long strands. In a bowl, mix the tamarind, soy sauce, brown sugar, and Sambal Oelek in a bowl to make the sauce.  Tip: mixing the sauce before hand ensures you can adjust it to your own tastebuds, and will evenly coat the noodles, as opposed to throwing in the ingredients in a hot pan, and hope they meld together in the right taste.

4. When the tofu is cooked you can either push it to the side of the pan, or temporarily remove it from the pan (I pushed mine to the side). Turn the heat to low-medium and add the garlic and shallots, stirring frequently so the garlic does not burn, as this would create a bitter taste. When they are cooked (a min or 2), push these to the side as well and add your noodles.  

Tip: depending on how large your skillet it, add noodles just enough to cover your cooking surface, do not pile it on top like a pyramid. If your skillet is too small, you can always cook the noodles in 2 batches, but putting all the noodles in at once if your skillet is too small will RUIN your Pad Thai. I learned this the hard way, thinking I was supposed to use a wok for Pad Thai, or always putting heaps of noodles in the skillet, being left with gross Pad Thai as the aftermath.

After you add the noodles on low-medium heat, add 2-3 tablespoons of water and let noodles soften up a bit more from their firmness.

5, Add Pad Thai sauce and using a flat spatula, swirl the noodles in circles. If you have 2 flat spatulas, use them to flip over the noodles, so that they cook on both sides (I would not recommend thongs).  Add chives and bean sprouts, and cook for another 2 minutes, mixing in evenly all the tofu, garlic and shallots that were pushed to the side. Serve with a sprinkle of crushes peanuts on top.

I was too hungry to set up a nice bowl and spend 20 minutes photographing it, so I just took a photo of the noodles in the pan. (I didn't have shallots, chives or peanuts on hand, so that's why you might not see it in there, but I usually add those)

Have you ever attempted to make Pad Thai?

Sauce Boss: Ginger Lemongrass

Welcome the first post of a little thing I like to call "Sauce Boss". From now on, whatever sauce recipes I post will be filled under this said "Sauce Boss". Where did this name come from? Usually, at the end of every sauce I end up cooking, my significant other and I usually just have one thing to say: "this is the saaaaaaauce-o-boss!"

I think sauces now play a much more important role in my cooking than they ever did before. For example, since tofu by itself is rather bland, IMO it always needs to soak or cook in some excellent sauce for good flavour. That, and I find sauce gives great flavour to numerous meals! (from gravy, to general tso, to blackbean, tahini almond, sweet and spicy, etc)

For Christmas, I received a few vegan cookbooks, one of them called "My Vegan Recipe Journal". It's a nifty little book that gives you a recipe for each category (ie breakfast, sandwiches) and the rest of the pages are blank recipe templates for you to write your recipes in. Considering I usually end up scribbling ingredients on little pieces of scrap paper while I'm cooking, this is a decided improvement. I have a hard time writing down exact ingredients, so hopefully this book will be able to help me out. Have you ever seen your grandmother cook? Notice how they just throw stuff in there and then it ends up tasting amazing and you're possibly wondering "gee Grandma, how'd you do that?"...well, that's exactly how I cook.

This ginger lemongrass sauce goes really well with dumplings (gyoza), wontons, springrolls, and stirfries. 

Ingredients
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp fresh/jarred, minced/grated ginger
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tbsp hot chili sauce (I used Sriracha)
1/2 cup or less water
1 or 1/2 stalk of fresh lemongrass

Directions

1. Saute garlic and ginger with vegetable oil in a small pot.

2. Add soy sauce and sesame oil, stir for a while. Add the water and the lemongrass leaves and let it infuse for 10 minutes.

3. When the lemongrass taste is strong enough for your taste, remove the leaves and the sauce is done.

Have you ever tried ginger lemongrass sauce before?

Easy Chow Mein

Sometimes, I just crave something simple. I love chow mein noodles, and the great thing about it is that you can usually add just about any vegetables you have roaming in the fridge and it will still taste good. Usually, I like to add more oriental vegetables such as bamboo shoots, water chestnut, shiitake mushrooms, snow peas, baby bok choy...but alas, these are the ingredients I had on hand. Depending on how quickly you can chop, this dish can be ready in under 30 minutes.


Ingredients
2 bundles of chow mein noodles
1 Japanese eggplant
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 sliced shallot
1/2 sliced green pepper
1/2 cup faux chicken (I used So Soya, this ingredient is totally optional)
1 minced garlic clove
1-2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp ginger powder or to taste
black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Slice all vegetables including the garlic above accordingly and begin stir frying in a wok with a little sesame oil. Stir fry on medium high heat until cooked but still crispy.

2.In a separate pot, boil water and cook chow mein noodles for 2-3 minutes max.

3. Add noodles to wok along with the rest of the ingredients and cook for another min or 2 until the noodles have absorbed some of the flavour. Serve with sesame seeds on top and green tea.

Have you had chow mein before?

Asian Spaghetti Squash

It's squash time! No, not going on the court for a good swing, but rather preparing some delicious spaghetti squash. I never knew it was so low in calories, according to Nutritiondata.self.com, 1 cup of spaghetti squash is only about 42 calories. Bonus!

Now normally, my recipes are quite extensive in their ingredients list, mostly because I really enjoy flavourful things. Usually when I cook, I throw stuff in the dish as the inspiration comes, and next thing you know, I've got a list of 10-20 ingredients by the end of dish. That's all fun and fine...but today I felt like something simple. I mean really simple...

So my spaghetti squash recipe is just that. Simple and easy. If you love toasted sesame oil, then this recipe is for you! If you don't, maybe you feel adventurous today or search for another recipe that's more traditional. A little asian love with a little squash love=yummy.

Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp powdered cumin or to taste
shake of freshly cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons of sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit. After washing squash, pierce several holes all over with a fork, to allow the steam to escape when it is roasting. Roast for 1 hour.

2. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then slice in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the seed guts and throw it away. With a fork, gently scrape across, until the squash turns into spaghetti strands.

3. In a large bowl or casserole dish or whatever serving dish you may like, transfer spaghetti squash and add the sesame oil, soy sauce, cumin and black pepper. Serve warm and top with sliced almonds.

Unfortunately the dish did not make it to the photoshoot. My hunger and the wafting of toasted sesame oil convinced my stomach to devour it immediately.

How have you cooked spaghetti squash before?