Pad Thai Talay (Seafood Fried Noodles)

I’ll say straight up, Pad Thai, despite being probably the second most famous Thai dish, sitting just after green/red curries, is one of my least favourite Thai meals, but it is one of my husband’s favourites. I’ve been cooking a lot of dishes with rice on the side recently so promised him a noodle dish for a change. I also had both squid and prawns in so a seafood Pad Thai it was. Saying that, I did still really enjoy it!

For 3 smaller portions/ 2 hungry portions use:

• Rice noodles (made to packet instructions- usually pre soaked then stir fried to finish ) or 3 sachets of ready to wok rice noodles (Amoy’s brand aren’t bad)


• seafood of your choice- I’ve used half a bag of raw king prawns and 100g baby squid, cleaned, trimmed, scored in a cross hatch pattern on both sides so it’ll curl up when fried then cut into inch square pieces


• a really big handful of bean sprouts


• 2 eggs, beaten in a cup


• a small handful of coriander, loosely ripped


• a small handful of peanuts, roughly broken in a pestle and mortar


• 3 spring onions, finely chopped


• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped


• a big splash fish sauce (nam pla- available in all supermarkets)


• a big pinch of sugar


• juice of 1 lime, plus another sliced in half for squeezing over


• a few chillies, chopped for sprinkling over


• a big splash of vegetable oil for frying

Heat the oil up in a wok until it’s really hot and throw in the garlic for just a few seconds before adding the seafood, keep stirring and fry for 2 minutes until the prawns are pink nearly all over. Shove this off to one side of the wok and pour the beaten eggs into the empty side. Let them sit for a few seconds, then scramble, leave and scramble, repeat until the eggs are fully cooked then stir everything back together. Throw in the spring onions and bean sprouts, stir frying for another minute before putting in the drained noodles (or sachet noodles if using ready to wok). Stir fry for 1 minute, leave them to sit for a minute if you like a bit of char on your noodles. Next add in the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice, stir and have a taste to see if it needs any more.

Turn the Pad Thai out onto a plate and top with the crushed peanuts, coriander, chopped chillies and squeeze over half a lime.