Pad Thai Sauce

There are four ingredients in the Pad Thai sauce, Tamarind (for the sour flavor), Fish Sauce (for the salty part), Palm Sugar (for a slight sweetness), and Paprika or Thai chili powder (for the spice). Two cups of sauce will make about 6-8 portions of Pad Thai.

The problem is most Thai ingredients are not standardized in the way that a Western ingredient, say, white granulated sugar, is. A cup of granulated sugar is always the same, but a cup of your Palm Sugar or Fish Sauce might not have the same intensity as mine. To make matters worse, Tamarind comes in juice, paste, concentrate, and pulp – and usually there are one or two sources in the whole town. Which means you have to use what you can find and adjust it to match your other ingredients. So the easiest thing to do is just to taste it. However here lies that interesting thing about Pad Thai – everyone likes it different, some like it sweet, some like it salty. The sauce is so intense tasting since 4-6 tablespoons will flavor a whole wok full of noodles – that it is very hard to taste. Try a teaspoon on some bread usually helps.

Do all this ahead of making your Pad Thai:

• 1. Source your ingredients. Go your Asian market purchase the ingredients and write down the brands – you are going to want to purchase the same product – with the same intensities next time.

  2. Mix the ingredients together – roughly ½ cup each of Tamarind, Fish Sauce, and Palm Sugar. If you substitute white and/or brown sugar for the Palm Sugar, you should use only about 1/3 cup. Melt all these together in a small pot over a low flame. The only reason you are using the heating is to melt the sugar – you are not cooking the sauce.

  3. Taste and adjust the flavor balance until it suits you. Then add the chilli powder, begin with a teaspoon or two, depending on your taste, and keep adding until it tastes the way you like it

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