Comments on: Vegetarian Pad Thai

By: thaicooknewbie

thaicooknewbie — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:41:08 +0000

so I tried making this twice and both times I had a really tough time with the noodles. did exactly as you said and let the noodles soak in room temperature water for 45 minutes might have actually been even more than that. The noodles I bought were just run of the mill medium rice noodles you find at Asian super markets. followed the instructions exactly, radish in the hot wok with oil added the noodles and 1/8 cup of water and did everything else the rest of the recipe said. I added more water when I found the middles still too stiff. the flavor was pretty good although i’m not sure about the radish. (I found the flavor way too salty.) My biggest problem was the texture of the noodles. They were mushy and kind of gelatinous on the outside and too stiff in the middle.
I actually ended up eating the tofu and sprouts and peanuts and through out the noodles. I tried a second batch,(we were two for supper so I prepared two batches) this time throwing the noodles I had pre soaked into hot water for a minute or two and rinsing them in cold water before throwing it in the wok. This time they were no longer stiff in the middle but still tasted mushy and had the same weird gelatinous texture, this time the whole batch ended up in the garbage. Good thing I had made fresh spring rolls too otherwise we would have been ordering pizza. We have tried several times to make pad thai, trying different methods and recipes and still can’t get it right. I just can’t get the noodles to have the right texture. Any suggestions? Love your site by the way and looking forward to trying other recipes!

By: cee

cee — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:51:30 +0000

hi grant! i’m glad you enjoyed pad thai on the street – it’s the best that way! one thing to clarify – the noodles in thailand are not pre-cooked. they are fresh and have never been dried. the noodles you get at the grocery are dried and need to be pre-soaked in cold water first. if you cook the noodles (or even soak them in hot water) they will get mushy and stick together in a big clump when you fry.

By: grant

grant — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:38:36 +0000

just got back from thailand , ate pad thai at many street stalls with many variations . just remember to cook it fast on a high heat & have all of your ingredients prepared first [including cooked noodles]. we usually ate this around midnight , after a few Beer Chang .

By: Haley

Haley — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:47:10 +0000

We would like to feature your [recipe] on our blog. Please email haleyglasco@gmail.com if interested. Thanks

Haley

blog.keyingredient.com/

By: irksomecushion

irksomecushion — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:49:11 +0000

Hermant,
I had the same problem when I made my first batch. I solved it by cooking the noodles in about 1/2 cup water right after I add them to the wok. I didn’t use much oil at all. Just be sure to keep the noodles moving around after the water evaporates.

By: cee

cee — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:37:17 +0000

Hi Hemant,
Here are a few ideas:

1) Are you starting with dry rice noodles, then soaking them? Or did you start with fresh noodles?

2) Did you soak them in cold water or hot?

3) How long did you soak them?

4) How much oil did you use?

5) Did you add water when you cooked them? If so, when?

6) Did you cook each portion separately?

Let me know, and hopefully we can figure out what went wrong!

By: Hemant Kumar

Hemant Kumar — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:45:33 +0000

I tried making these noodles exactly like this, but my problem is that the noodles roll up into a sticky messy bundle 2 mins after they’ve left the wok, instead of being nice and separate. I don’t want to use a big load of oil. Is there any way to avoid this problem? Since your bio page says you live with a Thai family, I thought you might get some pointers from them.