How to make a prawn Pad Thai

A recipe from Rosa's Thai as the London restaurant celebrates serving its millionth Pad Thai
Amy Harris8 August 2017

Pad Thai is probably the most famous of all Thai noodle dishes. It’s always a safe bet to serve this dish because everybody loves it, even the fussiest of eaters.

Deliciously pungent tamarind is the key ingredient in this dish. Here's a recipe for a Pad Thai with added prawns from London restaurant Rosa's.

Ingredients (serves 2)

4 eggs, beaten

300g (10oz) rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes, then drained

8–10 prawns, shelled, deveined and heads removed

2 tablespoons dried turnip (available from Asian supermarkets)

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

Chilli powder, to taste (optional)

Bunch of Chinese chives or 2 spring onions, chopped

4 tablespoons roasted peanuts, crushed

Lime wedges, to serve

For the pad thai sauce

3 tablespoons tamarind pulp

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 shallots, chopped

2 tablespoons palm sugar

1 tablespoon nam pla (Thai fish sauce)

Method

First make the Pad Thai sauce. Soak the tamarind pulp in 6 tablespoons of warm water, then stir until it becomes a thick liquid.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wok, add the shallots and stir-fry until almost golden brown. Carefully add the tamarind (in case it spits) and cook for 1 minute to reduce slightly.

Add the palm sugar, stirring to break it up, then stir in the fish sauce and continue to cook over a high heat for 1 minute until it has thickened slightly. Transfer the Pad Thai sauce to a bowl and set aside. This recipe makes enough sauce for about 4 servings, so store any leftover Pad Thai sauce in an airtight container and use within 4 weeks.

Now prepare the noodles. Scramble the beaten eggs in a hot wok with the remaining oil, then add the noodles and stirfry until the egg breaks up and the noodles are soft. Add the prawns and dried turnip and stir-fry until the prawns are nearly cooked.

Mix in 8 tablespoons of the reserved Pad Thai sauce and continue to stir-fry until the noodles take on a nice golden brown colour. Add the bean sprouts, chilli powder (if using), Chinese chives and crushed peanuts and keep stir-frying for another 2 minutes.

Transfer the noodles to 2 serving plates and serve immediately with lime wedges.

This recipe is taken from Head Chef and Co-Founder Saiphin Moore's best selling Rosa's Thai Cafe, The Cookbook and is available at all Rosa's Thai Cafes across London. Today August 8, you can order Rosa's Pad Thai for £1 from 12pm-5pm at all of its restaurants. It's first come, first served...

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT