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Monday, November 17, 2008

thai goodness

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Hubs and I are playing a game.

We are playing the Biggest Loser...of sorts.

My post-baby physique is decidedly, um....rounder than it was before. Can't say I'm a big fan of it.

So the game is on, and the healthy food is in. I've got a great healthy meal plan for the week (hopefully a more successful one than the last one I posted) and I am going to kick his butt, and hopefully also get rid of the nasty case of muffin top I've developed.

Tonight's dinner was pad thai with shrimp and tofu. Unfortunately, my picture shows NEITHER the shrimp nor the tofu...oops. I stole this recipe from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, and just modified a few things due to packaging size (I'm not going to use 1 cup of tofu when I had to open a 1lb package) and ingredient availability (ran out of fish sauce after 1.5 T and was short on lime juice!).

This was yummy. I made mine a bit spicy, as capsaicin is supposed to be good for the metabolism, and I just, frankly, like it that way.

I think you'll like it too, even if my picture fails utterly.

Pad Thai

pad thai with shrimp and tofu

Sauce:
2 T lime juice
2 T fish sauce
2 T oyster sauce
3 T ketchup
3 T soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
1 T sri racha (spicy chili garlic paste)
1 T grated ginger
1 t sesame oil
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
4 crushed garlic cloves

8 oz rice stick noodles (about 1/4 inch wide)

2 t canola oil
1/2 c. thinly sliced red onions
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb extra-firm tofu, diced (I actually briefly marinated my tofu in some soy sauce, and hoisin sauce to give a little more flavour)
2-3 cups bean sprouts
1/2 c chopped green onions
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 c chopped peanuts

1. First, prep ALL of your ingredients (chop the red pepper, peel the shrimp, chop tofu, peel garlic, peel ginger, etc.). This dish cooks SUPER fast and you don't have much time to chop once you start.

2. To prepare sauce, combine lime juice, fish sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, sri racha, hot pepper flakes and garlic in a medium bowl. Set aside. DON'T SNIFF IT. Fish sauce stinks. It tastes good but smells like rotting fish. It WILL taste good.

3. Place rice noodles in a large bowl and pour boiling water over top. Let soak 7 minutes. Drain and rinse well in cold water (while the rest of your stuff cooks, periodically, just toss the noodles around a bit with your hands...it will keep them from becoming a gluey ricey noodley mess).

4. While the noodles are soaking, heat canola oil in your biggest non-stick wok/skillet over high heat. Add onions and red pepper, cook about 3-4 minutes. Add shrimp and tofu and stir-fry until shrimp are just done (3ish minutes).

5. Add rice noodles (I like to drop them in small clumps over the dish), then add the sauce, bean sprouts, green onion and cilantro. Toss and cook until hot (1 minute or so). Add peanuts and toss again. Stir immediately.

I really like this version - it was not as sweet as most (I find a lot of pad thai recipes to be almost cloyingly sweet....the lime really cuts through here) and I loved the spice level. Hubs approved heartily, so hopefully the fact that he ate seconds means I will win.... :)

Plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday - caprese salad with chickpeas
Wednesday - italian sausage lasagna with spinach and ricotta
Thursday - smoked ham and split pea soup (homemade)
Friday - mushroom quinoa risotto with seared giant sea scallops

Thanks again for reading!!!

5 comments:

Baked, By Anna said...

I just made a quinoa risotto! It was delicious and definitely less guilt-inducing. Your week sounds delicious. Good luck with the BL competition, home-version.

kickpleat said...

i've never been very successful at making pad thai at home, but i'll definitely try this version out! it looks good!

Not So French Girl said...

I'm going to try it! And I hope you blog for the rest of the week :)

Anonymous said...

I love pad thai!! so, a question.. having just come back from Thailand, land of awesome food.. does 'authentic' pad thai really have ketchup in it? because every place I had pad thai over there had no ketchup. and every place I have it back home has ketchup. I'm inclined to trust the Thais - they use sugar for that hit of sweetness (where we use ketchup, I assume?), so their noodles nowhere resemble the red-ness that it seems to have here. I miss the food over there!!! I can never seem to replicate their balance of the spicy/salty/sour/sweet!

leslie @ definitely not martha said...

lesley - I don't think they use actual ketchup over there...but I do bet that they might use a little tomato paste - the combo of tomato paste, brown sugar and lime juice is not so far off the ketchup. That said, I didn't find this version to be as sweet as most!

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