Pad See Ew
Wok-fried Thai noodles in a savory soy mixture. Make this popular Thai "fast food" noodle at home. It's one of the quickest Thai noodle dishes you can make!
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Servings: 4
Equipment
- Wok (or a large stir fry pan)
Ingredients
Sauce (yields about ½ cup; use about 2½ tablespoon per serving)
- 4 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Golden Mountain sauce, see post
- 1½ tbsp black soy sauce, see post
- 1½ tbsp sugar
Protein & marinade (marinade is for 4 portions of protein)
- 1 lb protein of your choice (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, tofu), use 125g (4-5 oz.) per serving
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- ½ tsp white pepper
Everything else
- 8-10 cloves garlic minced, use about 1 tbsp per serving
- 1 packet fresh rice noodles (see post), use about 100 (3-4 oz.) grams per serving
- 4 eggs, use 1 egg per serving
- 8 stalks Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan), use 2 stalks per serving, about 2 cups chopped
- bean sprouts (optional), not really part of this dish in Thailand but dangit, I like it!
Condiments to serve
- grounded Thai chili pepper
- chili vinegar
- white pepper
How I Make It
Prep work
- Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- Slice & marinade the proteins. If you are using chicken, beef, or pork, slice it thin and against the grain. If using shrimp, peel and devein. Combine the marinade ingredients with the protein, and let marinade for 10-15 minutes. Then stir-fry the protein in a hot wok with a little bit of oil until cooked through; you may need to do this in batches. Discard the accumulated liquid, and set aside.
- Prepare the noodles. If you are using sheets, cut the sheet into thick strips (about 1¼ inch thick) and separate into individual strands. Portion out a small bunch for each serving (about 100g or 3-4 oz.)
- Cut the Chinese broccoli into pieces, starting with the stems. Cut the stems into small pieces (thick pieces will take too long to cook). Cut at a bias if you want the pieces to seem bigger, yet still thin enough to cook quickly. When you get to the leaves, you can cut the leaves into large chunks. These will easily wilt and cook so don't cut them small. Portion out a couple cups per serving.
Before you start cooking
- Make this one plate (serving) at a time. This will help with the toasting of the noodles and achieve that "charred" wok taste. Making a large batch will limit your ability to get the wok hot enough to achieve this.
- Portion out each ingredient and organize them so everything is within reach. This is "fast food" so like any stir fry, it will go quickly. You don't want to fumble around measuring or looking for ingredients during the process.
Now let's cook! Get ready, this goes fast.
- Heat your wok with a couple tablespoon of oil on high heat (as high as you can go) and add your garlic. Don't wait until the wok/oil is hot before adding the garlic or you will burn your garlic. As the oil heats up, the garlic will begin to sizzle and become aromatic.
- Crack an egg into the oil, let it set for a couple of seconds, then scramble the egg in with the garlic.
- Once the egg is scrambled (don't worry if it isn't 100% cooked through), add the Chinese broccoli. Make sure you keep everything moving in the wok, constantly tossing and flipping your the vegetable. Do this for about 10-15 seconds.
- Add the portion of noodle, and keep tossing and flipping everything together for a few more seconds. Add in the sauce (about 2 ½ tbsp per serving), and keep flipping and tossing for another 10 seconds or until everything is well combined.
- Once the sauce is mixed through and the noodles are coated, spread out the noodles in the wok to give maximum contact to the wok surface. Leave it to "toast" for a minute, then toss again. Toasting time may be a little longer or shorter, depending on how hot your wok can get. The noodle (and even the egg) will start to have "char" marks, which is a sign that you are doing it right! Do this a couple more times until you get some nice charring throughout. (Don't go too crazy though, you don't want to burn the dang thing).
- When you are happy with the charring, add the protein back in and toss a few more times. Do not add any liquid or juices that may have accumulated from the protein or your noodles will become soggy.
- If you are using bean sprouts (again, not really authentic but dangit I like it!) add it at this point and toss through. You can also some grounded Thai chili pepper now and toss it through if you want. Otherwise you can serve it on the side.
- Serve with a side of chili vinegar, white pepper, and (if you're me) more grounded Thai chili pepper.