Just Vatch me

Someone please enlighten me, as to why the letter 'W' is double u in English, but it's double v in French ? I just thought about it and isn't it rather peculiar... and why is it that door isn't pronounced the same way as 'oo' in poor ? or cook ? or book ?

Cookbooks and baking books by the way, I love!! I used to want a big library full of them, but I now tend to be more selective and am content to have few reliable ones. Though I must say that I've been quite spoilt to have been given some nice ones these recent years. So actually I have no excuse not to be able to complete my own challenge this year. My Silver Spoon book alone, has over 2000 recipes! yes it's written on the cover! I'm not short of recipes, it's life that is rather short.

Amongst the few I bought for myself last year, is this picture-less Thai cookery book by Vatcharin Bhumichitr, a Taste of Thailand. No illustration whatsoever! It was of course on sale that's why I got it but it is rather unappealing that I hadn't tested out anything up until a few days ago. Last weekend I made my way to a Thai grocer and got everything I'd need for some pad thai and panaeng curry.



My... my... seldom would I praise myself but I'm quite proud at how my pad thai turned out. I quite like the fact that it's practically meatless... bar the odd tablespoon of dried shrimps. What amazes me and quite don't get how... is the fact that I didn't seem to have to add any seasoning and yet there was a nice balance of salt, sour and sweetness. I must say though, it tastes unlike pad thai from my local thai resto but I think it's yum yum nevertheless.

Pad thai
a recipe from a taste of Thailand p.84
(The total cooking time for this dish shouldn't exceed 2-3 minutes)

4 tbsp (60 ml) oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 egg
4 oz (120 gr) dry Sen Lek noodles (see note), soaked in water for 20 minutes until soft, and drained
2 tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp (22.5 ml) fish sauce
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) sugar
2 tbsp (30 ml) chopped roasted peanuts
2 tbsp (30 ml) dried shrimp, ground or pounded
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) chilli powder
1 tbsp (15 ml) finely chopped preserved turnip (chi po)
30 gr beansprouts
2 spring onions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 sprig coriander leaves, coarsely chopped
lemon wedges, to garnish

In a wok or frying pan, heat the oil, add the garlic and fry until golden brown. Break the egg into the wok, stir quickly and cook for a couple of seconds. Add the noodles and stir well, scraping down the sides of the pan to ensure they mix with the garlic and egg.

One by one, add the lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar, HALF the peanuts, HALF the dried shrimp, the chilli powder, the preserved turnip, HALF of the beansprouts, and the spring onions, stirring quickly all the time.

Test the noodle for tenderness. When done, turn onto a serving plate and arrange the remaining peanuts, dried shrimp and beansprouts around the dish. Garnish with the coriander and lemon wedges.



Note :
1. As long as you have all the ingredients pre-chopped and measured, everything comes together in 3 minutes, for real!
2. Couldn't find nice beansprouts and substituted it with cabbage... and I omitted the spring onions because I thought I had some, alas they were beyond dead when I fished them out of the fridge. In the future I think I'll sub it with garlic chives.
3. Sen Lek noodle : a medium flat rice noodle, about 2 mm wide, and usually sold dried.
4. Preserved turnip (chi po) : used only in small amounts, usually chopped fine. Found in Chinese and oriental stores.
5. Don't mistaken chi po with tang chi which is preserved radish! I nearly got the wrong one. In the end I had to ask for the lady man at the cashier whether I got the correct one, and he/she smiled demurely to me and nodded.
6. I got the smallest packet of chopped chi po which is 400 gr, even though I have made pad thai a couple more times last week, I have no idea what else I could do with 375 gr or so of thai preserved turnip. Please contact me if you do.