Pad Kee Mao and Veggie Spring Rolls  

Posted by Matt

 Muahhahaha! Successful Chinese meal made by me!

Though I did follow this recipe for the Drunken Noodles: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/dining/052grex.html

I did make some variations:
I used about 1.5x the amount of sauce that the recipe calls for.
Their recipe must have used a different type of noodle, because cooking for that long was over kill. I got some Wide Rice Noodles from Fubonn whose instruction read; cook in boiling water for 3 minutes, and then drain. You do need to keep this in some extra water to avoid them getting too sticky, or drain them and put them directly in the saute.
I used twice as many jalapenos, but could have done even more. It wasn't too spicy at all.
I didn't pick up any cilantro, though it would have been good. Instead I had thai basil, some other asian leafy herb, and some awesome mint leaves. Mint leaves are essential.
Finally, this recipe makes more than would fit in my large wok, so I cooked in batches. It is also good to add the noodles to the wok first, then the sauce, and let them cook until a couple parts start to brown on the bottom.
And again, I added extra sambal, so it definitely could have been spicier.


For the spring rolls:
1 package rice paper
Thai basil
Mint
3 carrots
1 cucumber
1 package scallions
rice vinegar
peanut sauce

The rice paper took a little practice. One recipe I read had you soak the rice paper for 5 minutes in boiling water. The package said to dip it in warm water for 5 seconds. I started with boiling water which made extracting the paper tricky. It would just come out of the water and stick together in a large clump. Eventually I learned the best method was to have warm water, dip the rice paper in for a literal second, just enough to get water to touch all parts, then lay it on a plate, add the shredded carrots, julienned cucumber and scallion, a touch of rice vinegar, the herbs and then wrap. After sitting for a minute while you composed, the rice paper became pliable and sticky. It was very easy to wrap up.
I purchased some peanut sauce to dip these in. Maybe not the best peanut sauce, but it was good enough, and easier than making it from scratch. I had too many other things going on in this recipe to worry about it.

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