Hi Tracey!

You might be able to find a pliable block of tamarind at a Mexican grocery store (there is one behind Redbone's). There is another substitute for block tamarind and I'll look through my Thai cookbook to see what it is. Will reply on this in a day or two.

I've seen the noodles at Kroger in the ethic food section. I might have seen them at other WalMarts.

I'm sorry but you probably will not find Tamarind at a Krogers, and maybe no Siracha either. You would have to substitute some other kind of hot sauce for the Siracha. It would be fine to substitue narrow noodles for the rice noodles if Kroger doesn't have them in their ethnic section.

I love a good Pad Thai and would give you the recipe I used which didn't call for Tamarind, but have lost all of my recipes that I had on the computer for the third time. You can find recipes for Pad Thai on the web that doesn't call for Tamarind. Good luck, hope you enjoy your Pad Thai.

I get mine at Whole Foods - but it doesn't sound like that's available to you either. You might have more luck getting concentrate; if so, use 1.5 T for your cup of water.

I got that from Cook's Illustrated's recipe which I really enjoy. (Thanks for reminding me!) They also suggest that in a pinch you can use 1:1 lime juice and water. In this case they suggest using light brown sugar in place of the recipe's white. Your recipe already uses light brown so you're good to go.

As far as the noodles, maybe I'm just spoiled but I'm thinking you should be able to find them in at least one of your supermarkets.

Tamarind concentrate is easier to find, but you'll need to use more, as FOAS suggested. I buy Tamarind paste at an Indonesian market (it's closer to me than Thai Town), but you might want to look for it on line - I find it a fairly essential ingredient to Pad Thai.

Although they say they are seedless, I found a tamarind seed in one of the packages of tamarind, and so I planted it in a pot. It actually grew for 2-3 years in my back yard in Venice and started to look like a Jacaranda tree, but then it suddenly died for some reason. The trees are pretty, and I've seen some growing here, but they do get quite large. I could maybe put one in my front yard here, however.

You can also try an Indian market, if you do not have a Thai market. Once you get tamarind paste (or concentrate), you will find many uses for it. It is an essential ingredient in many barbeque sauce recipes.

Lars

My Kroger here in Central Ohio carries sriracha; maybe yours does, too. Look in the Asian foods section for the bottle with the rooster. Some people even call it "rooster sauce," because that brand is so common -- I see it in every Thai and Vietnamese restaurant, too. But if you can't find it, use any red hot sauce. It isn't THAT different. Chinese or other rice noodles shouldn't be too hard to find, either, but if you can't find them, maybe fettucine would work; they aren't rice, but they are sort of the right size and texture. Tamarind is another story.

If you've never had pad thai, I'd try some at a restaurant first. I LOVE it and eat it a lot. You can get it vegetarian, too. Leftovers are great for breakfast.

I'm sure you can find other recipes that don't call for either sriracha or tamarind. I found this one (see link) for you that the author called "pad thai for beginners," although it is quite thorough. It gives lots of information, not just the recipe. And if you look in the note about tamarind paste, she gives a link for where to order it on line.

Good luck and have fun! Be sure to come back and tell us how it came out.

Hi Tracey, I apologize in advance for bombarding you with information and I am sure some will argue that it might not be "authentic" if you don't use tamarind - and I agree - it's better if you can find it - but I've made it without it and it's still good - The first recipe is from Cindymac and doesn't use tamarind, and the second is from someone who used to post here - lythonde and she gives instructions in her notes at the end on how to compensate if you can't find tamarind. (her tips are very helpful in finding that balance of flavor, too!)

I will add that sometimes I couldn't find the right noodles and I have used bean threads and really like them in it.

I hope this helps you! It is just soooo good!

Stacy
(I think I'll be putting pad thai on the menu maybe for our anniversary tomorrow night!!!)

PAD THAI Cindy Mac
1 pound shrimp or chicken breast cut into thin, bite size pieces
8 oz. dried rice noodles
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 egg, beaten
6 green onions, sliced diagonally
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
3-4 tablespoons peanuts, chopped
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
lime cut into wedges
Prepare everything in this order:
MAKE sauce with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chili sauce and vinegar.
CHOP the garlic, green onions, peanuts and cilantro; set aside in separate bowls.
SOAK the noodles in warm water to cover for 10 minutes. They should still be a little hard when drained.
HEAT wok or large skillet on high; add oil. Sauté the shrimp or chicken, then half of the green onions. Add garlic momentarily, then add the egg and scramble quickly. Add the drained rice noodles and toss to coat. Add the sauce mixture and let cook for 30 seconds. Add remaining green onions, bean sprouts, peanuts, and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

PAD THAI LYTHONDE
Sorry; I don't pop over to the recipe section often, but Cindy mentioned you were looking for a Phad Thai recipe. I generally dont use a recipe, and this is out of my head, so measurements will be inexact. Make sure to taste the sauce before you go forward: you need a strong but balanced combo of salty, sweet, and sour. Adjust ingredients as necessary.
Noodles:
1 lb. thin rice stick noodles
1 lb. med. size shrimps, shelled and cleaned, last tail segment of shell left intact
(you can substitute a few sliced-up boneless, skinless chicken breasts and/or cubed deep fried tofu)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. bean sprouts
1 bunch green onion, cut into 1" lengths
Oil, for stir-frying
Sauce:
3 tbsp. Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp. tamarind concentrate
3 tbsp. lime juice
1/4 palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. minced garlic
cayenne or red chili flake to taste (go easy; you can always add more later)
Erica: "Taste the sauce it should be a strong but balanced combination of salty, sweet and sour."
Garnish:
lime wedges
toasted chopped peanuts
fresh cilantro leaves
Additional raw bean sprouts
shredded cabbage or carrot
Soak noodles in hot water while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Peel shrimp, chop veggies for noodles and garnish, etc.
Combine ingredients for sauce (TASTE and adjust as necessary) and set aside. Make sure all ingredients are prepped and ready to go before you begin cooking.
Get a large wok quite hot. Add a few tbsp of oil into the wok. Add shrimp or chicken and let sear. Add the white portion of the green onion and the bean sprouts and toss together for a few seconds. Push the protein and veggies up to one side on the wok and add a bit more oil to the bottom if necessary. Add eggs and allow to set gently. Scrape into curds and combine with rest of stir-fry. Add drained, soft noodles and toss to combine. Add sauce and continue to stir-fry until the noodles have absorbed almost all of the sauce. At this point add the green portion of the green onions and toss to combine. Continue to cook until the noodles have adsorbed all the sauce and are soft-chewey with good flavor.
Serve alone or with rice, if you like, garnished with wedges of lime, several tbsp. fresh bean sprouts and crunchy stuff (cabbage or carrot) and topped with ground peanuts and cilantro. This recipe will serve 2-4 hungry people, depending on how ravenous they are, or more with additional thai dishes.

A few tips: The whole cooking process might sound complicated, but it should take only about 5 minutes and is really just a question of adding things in the proper order. If you have a smaller wok or a saute pan, you can saute the shrinp and veggies in one batch and set aside, then saute the noodles and sauce in another bather and combine everything in a big bowl. If your noodles seem quite firm when you start the stir-fry process they will need more cooking time with the sauce and you might add a few tbsp of water to the wok and cover to steam them softer. However, you are looking for a texture that is still a bit chewey...not al dente, where the center of the noodle is different than the exterior, but just a sort-of all over cheweyness that comes from not over-cooking the noodles. If the noodles seem really really limp when you remove them from the hot water, let them sit a few minutes and they will dry out a bit. After you have made phad thai a few times, you will be able to tell the proper texture for the noodles just by feeling them. The beauty of Phad Thai is you can really modify it as you wish. I knew someone who liked theirs with broccoli. Green onion and bean sprouts are pretty standard as the "crunchy" factor, but you could substitute with cabbage or carrot....anything that will hold it's crunch, then top with more of the same. The peanuts round out the dish and are yummy but aren't totally necessary: I just leave them out when I don't have them. If tamarind is unavailable, add a bit more lime and palm sugar and a dash or two of worcestershire sauce (tamarind is a main flavoring). Ummmm...other than that, welcome to the wonderful world of thai food cookery. I hope your noodles turn out wonderfully!

Tracey, if you decide to take people's suggestions of going to a Thai restaurant to try it first, don't bother with the local ones where we live. You will have to go to Nashville for a decent Pad Thai. The recommendations here are good; you'll enjoy making something different and I'm sure it will be a success!

Thank you all for the information!!! This is great. I love to compare different recipes for the same food and this gives me plenty to look at. I did find the noodles at Kroger, but no luck with tamarind. Dee, I didn't make it to the hispanic market yet. Thanks for the suggestion. I do have sriracha sauce but I've never bought fish sauce! I also don't have a wok so I'm wondering if this will work in a regular skillet?

As for trying pad thai in a restaurant, I would LOVE to but I need to clarify that I live in a small town in TN. We have catfish and bbq restaurants coming out our ears but not any Thai restaurants :) Thanks again everyone for pointing me in the right direction.

Stacy, thanks for all the detailed info and letting me know what worked for you. I think Cindymac's recipe might be a good starting point for me.

Tracey

tracey, I've made them both and both are very good, I think you will be hooked.

tracey, good luck on that pad thai. I've used Cindy's recipe and it was good, although I didn't like the rice noodles, I'd use something else if I make it again, even though it wouldn't be "authentic".

I'm glad you posted this, though, because I made something else that had coconut milk in it and I thought it was pad thai but I guess it wasn't. Now I'm going to have to think about it....

I can even get Sriracha sauce here, so you'll probably find that, and I can get rice noodles in the Asian section of Meijer's, so maybe you'll find them too. Have fun!

Hey, can't you just make a run to Jungle Jim's? (grin) They have EVERYTHING.

Annie

I use a variation of Lythonde's recipe - I added fermented cabbage and dried shrimp to it, but just because I have those ingredients on hand.

From your name I thought that you lived in Ohio. My mother lives just outside a small town in Texas (population ~60,000), and it has a Thai restaurant, but I haven't been to it yet. They seem to be easier to find these days.

Lars

Pad Thai is one of my favorite dishes and I have to say, the combo of the lime, sugar, and fish sauce is key to the dish, so I can't understand any recipe for Pad Thai that doesn't include lime juice! It would be like leaving the basil out and still trying to call it pesto!!

The recipe listed under "Cindy Mac" looks the closest to the traditional recipe to me. Altho most traditional recipes also call for dried shrimp, but I never use it. I usually make mine with shrimp and tofu or chicken and tofu. I don't know why, but I don't consider it Pad Thai without the tofu altho some don't use it. And I've never come across a Pad Thai recipe with Tamarind. I guess everyone has their own version!

Don't be daunted by the length of the recipes - 90% of them is getting everything ready, then the actual cooking only takes like 10 minutes. It's just one of those dishes that has lots of components and to me, all of them are important. So I strongly agree - make sure you have everything cut, chopped, mixed and ready to go and it'll be a breeze!! And also, don't be turned off by the smell of the fish sauce lol!! You only need a small amount and it does really "make" the taste, along with the lime and sugar. It's not "fishy" at all once it's combined in the dish - unless you go overboard with it! A little goes a long way.

Enjoy!

Lisa

Lisa, very good point about the fish sauce...LOL. don't smell it!

DH and I went out Sat night for our anniversary but it is actually tonight - so I am making pad thai - thanks for the reminder!

Stacy

There are different kinds of fish sauce.

I went a little berserk with fish sauce after our recent trip to SE Asia. I ran right out and got the most authentic looking bottle I could find of the Vietnamese Phu Quoc stuff that ntt-hou had recommended on my "what should I buy in southeast Asia?" thread. It is a thick one, though, and it just gagged me. So I vowed to stick with the milder Thai stuff. But on my next trip to the Thai market, I wavered and ended up getting a bottle of light, clear Thai fish sauce AND a bottle of a darker but still clear Vietnamese fish sauce to compare. Now I have three bottles going.

We are going to grow gills!

Wow - you're set for life gellchom lol!! I admit, I'm just dipping my toes in Vietnames/Malaysian/Thai, etc., cuisine so I've only come across a few recipes that use it sofar. But before that, Pad Thai and another recipe that I don't know the name of - the long string beans stir fried with ground pork ( I use turkey) and hot pepper - are the only two dishes I make that I used fish sauce for. So a bottle lasts me for like a year! You'll have to post the results of all your experiments and let us know how they turn out :) !!

Lisa

I went out of my way to find dried shrimp once for my pad thai once. Just once. :)

Lisa, I'm surprised you've never seen recipes call for tamarind. I'm under the impression that it's considered a key ingredient for pad thai. Could be wrong, who knows.

I am with Lisa. I ask for extra lime with my pad Thai!
I can relate to you, Tracey. I live in a small farming community (7594 pop). They got a McDonalds 6 years ago and still talk about the construction of it.
In the Chinese aisle, on the very bottom shelf @ Kroger, you will find the rice sticks. They look like white thin spaghetti.
I think it's awesome you are trying to make this happen! Remember, you can always get the ingredients thru Amazon.com if you get really desperate!
Good luck, Dear!

Many of the recipes in the cookbooks I brought home call for dried shrimp, but we can't use shrimp, so I bought some dried fish (anchovies, I guess) at the Asian market instead. I haven't used them yet.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Waiting for my next day off to attempt this. Can't wait! As for fish sauce, I'll have to get whatever they have at Kroger or Walmart. Hopefully it will be a decent one. DH is allergic to peanuts so I won't be able to use the peanuts or peanut oil. Other than that, I think I can manage.

Lars, I'm originally from OH and lived there until I was 30. We moved down here to a much smaller town but all our family is in OH so we are frequent visitors. I think last year we took 7 or 8 trips up (450 miles one way).

And Annie, I will take any excuse to get to Jungle Jim's! We are probably not going up again until July so I will have to make due with what I can find her in Podunk :)

Thanks again for all the help! Pictures (hopefully) to follow.

Tracey