Pad Thai

I love Asian cuisine. Indian, Thai, Chinese... they are all so delicious. I have invested in a lot of Asian pantry staples such as sesame oil, fish sauce, and rice vinegar to have on hand when I attempt to make an Asian meal. The thing is... I can never get the food to taste as good as what I get in a restaurant.. until last night! On Saturday, I was deep cleaning my kitchen which included cleaning and organizing my pantry. I forgot I had 5 boxes of rice noodles so decided to make Pad Thai last night to free up some space. I looked up a few recipes and threw this together with some help from Cookie and Kate and the Food Network.

Pad Thai

Ingredients (Tip: Have all of your ingredients prepped before starting to cook)

- Protein of choice (I made Cooke and Kate's Crisp Baked Tofu. This is the BEST tofu I've been able to prepare at home. Other options are chicken or shrimp).

- 1/4 cup of boiling water

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 limes, juice of 1 lime and another lime cut into wedges

- 1/4 cup fish sauce

- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

- 1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce (Add more for additional heat. I added more :))

- 8 ounces of rice noodles

- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

- 1/4 cup yellow onion, sliced

- 3 teaspoons minced garlic

- 3 eggs, slightly beaten

- 1 large carrot, grated

- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

- 4 scallions, chopped

Instructions

1. Cook your protein of choice. (You can marinate the protein in the pad thai sauce so there is no need to worry about seasoning your protein besides salt and pepper).

2. Cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water to stop the noodles from continuing to cook.

3. In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the brown sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add juice of 1 lime, fish sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha and stir. Place cooked protein in sauce to marinate. (Note: I wanted my tofu to stay crispy so I didn't add it to the dish until the end).

4. In a wok or large pan, heat oil. One the oil is very hot, add onions for 1 minute.

5. Add the garlic and stir.

6. Add the eggs and cook until scrambled.

7. Add the noodles, protein and sauce and stir for a few minutes.

8. Remove from heat and add carrot, peanuts, and scallions. Serve with lime wedge.