Pad See ew

This is a pretty common quick lunch food on the streets of Thai cities. It's basically stir fried noodles in soy sauce. Smokey wok essence and caramalised sugar is the heart of this dish - get your wok as hot as you can, and work in small batches to avoid swamping the wok (don't try and make more than 2 servings at a time). Note: naam see ew (spelling varies) is the Thai name for soy sauce, and pad means stir fry. The literal name for this dish is stir fry in soy (sauce). Simple, right?

Recipe

1 tsp oil
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
50g spring onions
100g pak choy or Chinese broccoli
Other vegetables as desired (I like to add 100g baby corn, 100g thinly sliced sweet potato, carrot, or red pepper (essentially, something to add colour), and 1/2 tin straw mushrooms)
Thinly sliced strips of leftover chicken, beef, or pork, if desired, or a few prawns (optional)
Rice noodles (allow 50g - dried weight - per person for a small serving, more if you're hungry)*
1 egg
To serve:
Small bowl rice vinegar, with 1/2 tsp minced or dried chili mixed in.
Roast and chopped peanuts

Boil a kettle and soak the noodles for 5-10 minutes (don't soak them too long, or they'll break up when stir fried. I was a bit guilty of this in the pictures! If your stove takes a long time to get sufficiently hot, I'd recommend that you get it almost up to temperature before you start soaking the noodles).

While the noodles soak, heat your wok to high. Add the oil, then the garlic and sugar. Cook a minute until the sugar starts to caramelise, then add the soy sauces, fish sauce and pepper. Add each of the vegetables and then the noodles, tossing each one well in the sauce and then allowing it to cook for 30 seconds before adding the next. If you can't get your wok really hot on your hob/stove, leave the mixture un-stirred for a short while from time to time, allowing the ingredients on the bottom to brown well before stirring again.

Break in an egg and toss well to coat the noodles in egg.

Serve drizzled with vinegar and chilies, and topped with peanuts.

*This dish is typically made with very broad rice noodles, called Sen Yai, but you can use other types of rice noodles if you prefer. In the photos, I used rice vermicelli, mostly because that's what I had in the house.

Serves: 2
Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes