Pad Thai with squid ‘noodles’

By: Ian Thorpe
From: Cook for Your Life
Serves: 4
Photographer: Gorta Yuuki (studio) and William Meppem (location)

I am actually a fairly average fisherman but I noticed a neighbour catching squid one day and he told me how to do it. It’s a lot easier than you might think. I usually go once a week, and the result is plenty of fresh squid for everyone at my house.

Pad Thai is normally made with flat rice noodles, but i like to cut my own ‘noodles’ from the squid. This brings down the carbohydrate content of the dish and adds the extra nutrition of seafood. Krachai, also known as lesser ginger, is a long, thin, finger-shaped rhizome that adds an earthy, authentic flavour to Thai dishes like this one. Look for it at Asian grocers – but if you can’t find it, it can be omitted.

Don’t let the long ingredients list intimidate you. The dish isn’t hard to make – there’s just a bit of chopping to get through, but then the cooking is quick. I like to make Pad Thai when I have friends over and I can delegate some of the chopping to them!

Sauce

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
3 tablespoons	tamarind puree
3 tablespoons	fish sauce
3 tablespoons	lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons	grated palm sugar
1 teaspoon	thai shrimp paste
120ml	vegetable oil
700g	squid tubes, opened out flat and finely sliced into ‘noodles’
2	eggs
5	spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons	finely chopped garlic chives
2 tablespoons	finely chopped coriander, plus extra leaves to serve
1/2 teaspoon	dried chilli flakes
200g	pork fillet, finely sliced
300g	raw prawns, shelled and de-veined
6	small krachai fingers, peeled and sliced
3	garlic cloves, crushed
180g	bean sprouts, trimmed
3 tablespoons	peanuts, roasted and chopped
	sliced red chilli, to serve
	lime wedges, to serve

Method

Mash the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a wok over high heat. Add a third of the squid and fry for 2–3 minutes, until milky white. Transfer to paper towel to drain and continue cooking the remaining squid in two more batches, using a tablespoon of oil each time.
Lightly beat the eggs, spring onion, garlic chives, coriander and chilli flakes in a bowl and set aside.
Heat the remaining oil in the wok over medium heat and stir-fry the pork for 2–4 minutes, until browned all over. Add the prawns, krachai and garlic and stir-fry for another 2 minutes, then add the sauce and cook for a further 2 minutes. Push all the ingredients to one side of the wok and pour in the egg mixture. Lightly scramble the egg as it begins to set, creating bite-sized pieces, then add the squid noodles, bean sprouts and peanuts and toss until well combined and heated through.
Serve with coriander leaves, sliced chilli and lime wedges.

Tags:: health; diet; low-fat; low fat; healthy; nutritional; weightloss

Pad Thai with squid ‘noodles’

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