I had never had Pad See Ew before moving to Thailand. I was almost exclusively a Pad Thai girl before arriving here, never wanting to miss out on its sour, sweet, peanuty loveliness when I happened to be eating in a Thai restaurant. Now that I have unlimited access to all things Thai, both right outside my door and in my own kitchen, I’ve been branching out. Thank goodness I did, because Pad See Ew…heaven.
Pad See Ew is absolute comfort food – the Thai equivalent of mac and cheese, without the mac…or cheese. Well, really no similarity to mac and cheese at all except that it is warm, comforting, and tastes totally indulgent. Both are fantastic and, for me, completely addictive.
Someone told me that Pad See Ew is “food for children”, which somehow made it all the more appealing to attempt making it at home. The combination of savory and subtle sweetness are appealing to all ages, but even better is the fact that it requires a mere six ingredients – SIX!
Like most wok cooking, it’s best to get that wok nice and steamy and keep it that way throughout cooking. A hot wok requires that you work quickly, but in this case, it helps to get caramelization on the noodles. A quick and hot cook time is also important if you are using fresh noodles, because you want them to be covered in tasty sauce before they soften too much.
As an alternative to the fresh wide noodles with which this dish is usually made, Frank was out to lunch with friends last week and they ordered Pad See Ew made with thin rice noodles. I tried this out at home using the exact same recipe and loved the result – different from the original, but no less wonderful.
Pad See Ew
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 5 oz fresh, wide rice noodles (about 1 and 1/2 cups)
- 2 tsp. palm sugar (substitute 1 tsp. white sugar if preferred)
- 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 20 leaves fresh basil
Instructions
- Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shallot and stir, cooking just until garlic begins to turn golden, about 1 minute.
- Add noodles to wok and stir to break apart. Add sugar, soy sauce and basil, stirring vigorously to coat noodles evenly in sauce. When sauce is bubbling and basil is wilted, about 2 minutes, remove wok from heat. Serve immediately.
Notes
First of all, I want to tell you that whenever I’m having a stressful moment at work, I turn to your blog and immediately feel better. Thanks. Second, I’ve had this in restaurants and love it. I’ll definitely try it at home. I think I’ll toss in some chicken.
I always order Pad See Ew over Pad Thai, at least since I discovered Pad See Ew a few years ago. I think it’s the thick noodles.
p.s. Found you via The Vegetarian in Pink.
So easy and delicious!
I tried twice this with spaghetti and linguine noodles, they were delicious!
So glad to hear it!!! Those fresh noodles are the only tricky element, so I’m glad to hear you had success with an easier-to-find variety!
So glad to hear it worked out! The linguine is a great idea!
I never would have considered that this was so easy! Yum yum yum. The fat flat noodles are my absolute favourite type and I just recently found them at Aldi.
Loved having your site for SRC! This dish was so good and I will definitely be making it again.