Cash and Carried in the City

And there is a PICTURE!! Pad Thai is one of our favourite meals since we've moved to London. They make everything so easy to make as all the shops have all the ingredients required. In a search for recipes I came across this one and thought we'd try it out. Usually we go pre-packaged across the board and thrown together, but this recipe is more flavourful and we enjoyed it.

Pad Thai
50 ml vegetable oil (2 tsp?)
1 garlic clove, sliced
20 king prawns, shelled ('shrimp' for you fellow americans!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 T Shrimp paste (this stuff is toxic and smelled up the whole flat!)
75 g roasted peanuts (handful)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
250g fine rice noodles, pre cooked
150g bean sprouts (handful)
1 tsp sugar
2 T soy sauce
2 T fish sauce (we didn't have this...but don't think it affected it too much)
Fresh coriander leaves ('cilantro', about a handful)
1 lime, juice only

1. Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat. Add the garlic and prawns and stir-fry for two minutes, then remove and set aside.
2. Add the eggs and spread out around the wok to form an omelette shape. Once cooked through, break up the egg into chunks, then set aside with the prawns and garlic.
3. Add the shrimp paste (and hold your nose), nuts and chilli and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
4. Add the noodles, bean sprouts, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce and stir-fry just long enough to warm everything through.
5. Return the egg & prawns to the wok and stir to combine.
6. Evenly divide among bowls and sprinkle with coriander and a squeeze of lime.

Enjoy and hopefully more to come!!