Pad Thai

Honestly, I never even considered trying to tackle such a dish as Pad Thai before reading about it in Matthew Amster-Burton's Hungry Monkey. But now it's become something that I find relatively easy and enjoy doing.

Ingredients:
- 200 g (6-7 oz) rice noodles
- water
- peanut oil
- 4 eggs
pad thai sauce:
- 30 g (1 oz) tamarind paste
- 10 g (0.4 oz) palm sugar
- 1 dL (0.4 cup) boiling water
- 30 mL (1 oz) peanut oil
- 1.5 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
toppings:
- fresh coriander leaves, chopped
- scallions, chopped
- peanuts, chopped
- fresh green chillies, chopped
- lime juice (squeezed from a wedge immediately before eating)
additional optional toppings:
- shrimp, cooked
- tofu, sliced and fried
- chicken breast, fried and sliced
- fresh mint leaves, chopped
- zucchini, chopped
- bean sprouts
- rucola (rocket)

The rice noodles are divided into portions of equal size and soaked in warm'ish tap water (separately) for some 15-20 minutes while cutting the toppings and preparing the pad thai sauce.

First I make the pad thai sauce - tamarind paste and palm sugar are placed in a bowl and added boiling water. This is stirred from time to time to dissolve both. (I've read that some brands of tamarind paste will require straining, but with the brand I use (Pantai Norasingh) everything dissolves - and the palm sugar tends to be lumpy, so dissolves more easily in the hot water). The rest of the sauce ingredients are stirred into the pad thai sauce.

When softened, the rice noodles are strained.

Peanut oil is heated in a large frying pan - when hot 2 eggs are added and stirred for half a minute before adding one portion of drained rice noodles and half the pad thai sauce (make sure to stir it just before as it tends to separate). The eggs and noodles are stirred in the pan until the liquid is absorbed, then transferred to a plate. Then the other portion is prepared similarly. Both portions are garnished with the selected toppings.

Sometimes I use a hot and sweet chili sauce instead of fresh chillies.

Un jour...

One of my current colleagues apparently has 3 interests outside of work: Wine, women and tennis.

Recently I asked him for some recommendations for wines and he gave me a list of 5 wines currently available at Systembolaget. He was almost apologetic about the fact that there were no Italian wines on his list - but there simply weren't any available that were good value for the price.

One of his recommendations was "Un Jour..." 2011 from Le Clos d'un Jour in Cahors, France. I forgot to mention to my colleague that Cahors is one of the most well-known French wine districts in Denmark. Why? You might ask.. Because the husband of the Danish queen is from Cahors.

The wine was quite good, very easy to drink. When I first poured it I noticed immediately how dark it was - more purple than red.