Dutch Girl Pad Thai

The latest dinner was a great Indonesian dish, which most of us know, the homemade noodle dish Pad Thai. The most important thing about homemade pad Thai is the sauce. Many people want to just purchase this sauce and throw together the ingredients, but taste and the elusive "umami" is more important than easy, sometimes.
The recipe for the best tasting pad Thai sauce is as follows:

3 tablespoons of concentrated tamarind pulp/ 1 cup of boiling water
1/2 cup of good fish sauce
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of water
2 teaspoons of sea salt
2 tablespoons of Mirren

Use the (1 cup) boiling water to soak the tamarind pulp, for at least 20 minutes to extract the most flavour, then using a small strainer pass the tamarind mixture through to a medium mixing bowl scrape the tamarind pulp from the bottom of the strainer as you press the water and pulp with the back of a spoon, keep squeazing the pulp until there is no more water, finish scraping the thinned out pulp at the bottom of the strainer, into the medium mixing bowl, discard the tamarind residue remaining in the strainer. Then mix in the rest of the ingredients, transfer all of this mixture to a saucepan, then bring to a boil, turn the heat down after 1 minute and simmer then for 10-15 minutes until the mixture is syrupy, not really thick, (about the consistency of real cream).
This will yield about 2 cups of pad Thai sauce, enough for 2 recipes of pad Thai. Or you could use the sauce to marinade chicken thighs in.....but that is another recipe idea another day......

The ingredients of my favorite pad Thai are as follows
2 eggs
4 scallions cleaned and sliced in the bias into small pieces
1 1/2 cups of fresh bean sprouts washed and dried divided
1/2 package of rice noodles medium soaked in hot water for 25 minutes then drained
4 ounces of shrimp
4 ounces of pork ( chop or tenderloin) or chicken breast, sprinkled with salt and pepper lightly
I use snow pea pods chopped, but you can use a bit of cabbage about 1/2 cup sliced thinly
3 small garlic cloves or 2 larger ones minced
2-4 tablespoons of canola oil or other oil that doesn't have a flavour that would interfere with the clean taste of your sauce
1/2 cup peanuts smashed with your mortar and pestle
Fresh cilantro or parsley for garnish
1 lime sliced into 8ths

Heat 1/2 the oil in a good sized wok, preferably or Dutch oven if you don't have a wok, add 1/2 the garlic and the meat or chicken, stir fry until the meat is slightly browned, add the shrimp, cook and stir until shrimp turn pink, remove, then if necessary, add a little more oil, add the onion, rest of the garlic, and cabbage, or snow peas, and the bean sprouts, stir frying and mixing well, then add the slightly beaten eggs, let the set a little bit, then stir them around until they are thoroughly mixed with the vegetables then add the noodles, stir all together until mixed, then add 1 cup of the pad Thai sauce, stir in the shrimp and meat stir all until thoroughly mixed, taste for seasoning, do not add too much salt, as you would upset the balance of the pad Thai sauce.
To serve, portion the pad Thai into 3-4 bowls, sprinkle each with a squeeze of lime juice, add peanuts, fresh bean sprouts, cilantro or parsley, garnish with a lime wedge. Enjoy!