Pad See-Ew
I love pad see ew at most Thai restaurants, and wanted to learn how to cook a reasonable version at home. I found some recipes on the Internet, but nothing seemed to give good instructions for my cooking style. I was inspired by a recipe on shesimmers.com, with a great video that shows how they make it a restaurant. It seems some of the instructions don’t quite match up with the video, but that’s not that big of a deal. Here’s my interpretation for how to make Pad See Ew in a home kitchen.
Ingredients:
- Vegetable oil
- 8 oz flat rice noodles (I can only find 1/2″ wide ones in my local stores)
- 1 egg
- 1-2 T dark sweet soy sauce
- Thin sliced meat (optional)
- Broccoli florets, chard, peas, or other veggies
Mix together to make the “special” sauce:
- 2 T Oyster sauce
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp white vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- (no fish sauce?!)
As SheSimmers mentions, a really hot stove is key. So far, I haven’t been able to get a good char on my noodles, possibly because I’m adding too much sauce and it tends to boil off (loosing heat at the same time). I also don’t have a wok yet, so maybe someday the recipe will improve even more.
- Cook noodles: Drop them into warm water for 30 minutes or until pliable. I’ve seen other methods, so I’m still refining this so we don’t get any overcooked or underdone noodles.
- Cook meat in stir-fry pan or dip in boiling water to cook.
- Prepare “special sauce” and have all ingredients ready and still hot! Hot ingredients will ensure that the pan temperature stays hot when the noodles go in.
- With your largest burner on as high as it will go, get your pan really, really hot. Add 2 T oil to pan and wait for it to start smoking. No need for nonstick.
- Add noodles (stand back). Don’t stir too much.
- Add about 1T of special sauce and stir. Wait 15 seconds until adding:
- Add 1 T dark soy sauce. stir it in and then let the noodles sit and try to get a char on some of them.
- Add egg and swish around to scramble (this avoids over-cooking the egg because our home cooking times are longer than at a restaurant)
- Add Veggies and optional meat, stir with tongs, but let the noodles sit to brown a bit.
- Plate the dish when it looks done- perhaps 2-4 minutes?
Make multiple batches separately to ensure pan stays hot.