Just down the road from our townhouse in Oahu, there’s a little restaurant called Phuket Thai. And yeah, you pronounce it like your inner twelve-year-old with the crude sense of humor thinks you should pronounce it. I think everyone in my office pronounced it that way, and frequently. Either they liked indulging their inner twelve-year-olds, or we all thought it was some really tasty food. I’m split between the options.
Anyway, when Scott and I were talking this past weekend about all the things we wanted to do when we got back to Hawaii, amidst talk of shrimp shacks and diving and stand-up paddleboarding, old memories wafted into my brain, and I said that we needed to go to Phuket Thai for old times’ sake. This particular recipe evokes a lot of those memories, because I’d always order some variety of pad thai.
Pad thai started out as a Vietnamese street noodle dish and then migrated to Thailand, where it got it’s name. It’s a stir-fried noodle dish with eggs, fish sauce, fruit juice, and a number of different possible garnishes, so you can make it a number of different ways as long as you have some good pad thai rice noodles, some fish sauce, some fresh veggies, and whatever else you want to throw in. It’s criminally easy, relatively calorie friendly, and it’s also delicious, so take yourself on a little culinary trip around the world the next time you’re whipping up lunch and try this on for size.
Shrimp Pad Thai
What you’ll need – for the dish:
- 4 tbsp butter
- 3 shallots
- 10-20 cooked jumbo shrimp
- 2 eggs
- 1 package pad thai noodles
- 1/2 cup celery
- 1/2 cup green onion
- handful of cashews
For the sauce:
- 4 tbsp lime juice
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 pinches crushed red pepper
How to make it:
- Boil the noodles for about 5 minutes, or however long the package directs. Drain them and set them aside.
- Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the shallots {and be prepared for the best smell in the universe!}. Add the shrimp, celery, and green onion, and let the mix saute until the shallots are translucent.
- Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and set it aside.
- Scramble the eggs and add them to the pan. Let them set a little, and then add the sauce and noodles. Mix it up, let it all get heated through, and then get it off the heat and into a bowl.
- Serve and enjoy!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!
