Pad thai

1. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the garlic and stir-fry until golden brown. Add the meat and shrimp and keep stirring until the shrimp changes color. Remove the shrimp to prevent overcooking and set aside.

2. Add the noodles. They will stick together so stir fast and try to separate them. Add a little water, stirring a few times. (We did use the water, I just poured from the tea kettle as Paul stirred) Then add the Pad Thai sauce, and keep stirring until everything is thoroughly mixed. The noodles should appear soft and moist. Return the cooked shrimp to the wok.

3. Push the contents of the wok up around the sides to make room to fry the eggs. (As I said above we did this step with the shrimp, see picture above) If the pan is very dry, add 1 more tablespoon of oil. Add the eggs and spread the noodles over the eggs to cover. When the eggs are cooked, stir the noodles until everything is well mixed-this should result in cooked bits of eggs, both whites and yolk, throughout the noodle mixture.

4. Add chiles, peanuts, garlic chives and bean sprouts. Mix well. Remove to a platter. Serve with raw bean spouts and a few drops of lime juice.

5. -For Pad Thai Sauce-
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan for and simmer for about 60 minutes until it is well mixed and syrupy. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

6. You can buy premixed tamarind concentrate or make your own tamarind juice. Buy a package of compressed tamarind pulp at any Asian market, cut off 3 tablespoons of paste and soak in 1 1/2 cups of warm water for 20 minutes. Squeeze out the pulp and discard; the remaining liquid is tamarind juice. Store any leftover juice or noodle sauce in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator or freezer.