The cravings for carbs continue, and I have had a hankering for pad thai. I mean the kind you get from that sort of shady place, but it is so spicy and peanutty it is just amazing. Plus Ms. Nyssa sent me a recipe swap email that got my hunger for peanutty thai food goin’. Last night I was STARVING, and had vowed earlier to make a psudeo pad thai, and some-how some-way I came up with my own little twist like every single day…that I ate aggressively as soon as it was cool. Who am I kidding, I burnt my mouth. So on our way home, we visited this beyond sketchy Korean grocery store in Latham, right after the traffic circle, to get fish sauce because I was fresh out. Lo and behold, I found a beautiful replacement for noodles that was wonderful. I didn’t even miss the carbs!

This stuff above, was ridiculous! And I don’t even like tofu! Also the package says it has 3g carbs per serving, nah son, that’s with 2g of fiber, so 1g net carb B!!!! And at $1.59 per package..so worth it.

Anyway, I kind of vaguely followed a pad thai recipe but I made it up as I went along.

First make the peanutty sauce, this is the final thing to add but the longer it sits and the flavors come together, the better.

The sauce:

2 tbsp peanut butter- teddie brand is my new favorite, but its pricey

1 tbsp almond butter, I had it on hand and it was crunchy so you can just add more peanut butter if you dont have it

1 tbsp chopped peanuts

1 packet of Splenda/stevia/cancer sugar/ or if you must follow a recipe, it calls for 1 tbsp tamarind paste (it is mad carby so I figured some kind of sweetness is needed here)

1 tsp chopped cilantro

1 tbsp Sriracha chili sauce

2 tsp lime juice, some zest if you are feeling zesty

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp of garlic juice- the stuff you get from the minced garlic jars, no biggie if you have to leave this out though

1/4 c soy sauce

1.5 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp red pepper flakes

maybe a shake or two of ground coriander

whisk it all together and let it sit, your patience will be rewarded (shut it, Alton)

Then I marinated the shrimp, about a one pound package of uncooked, frozen, EZpeels makes more than enough for 3-4 people. These were 16-20 counts so they were plump little buggers. Also I just added stuff till it tasted right so these are rough estimates

Shrimp Marinade:

1 tsp honey- you can take it out if you dont want the extra carbs

2 tbsp Lime juice

1 tsp coriander

1 tbsp Sriracha Chili sauce

1.5 tbsp Fish sauce

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp sesame oil

3tbsp soy sauce

few shakes of rice wine vinegar

Let those sit in the marinade for at least 15 min, longer is better.

In the meantime I browned some mushrooms and onions (1 c mushrooms and 1/2 c onions I think) in the pan with some vegetable oil and a drop or two of sesame oil, then added a cup or so (two handfuls) of shredded napa cabbage and a whole package of mung bean sprouts (save some for crunchies and garnish if you are fancy!). originally I was going to use these as a replacement for the noodles, once they were cooked and in the sauce I couldn’t tell what was sprout and what was noodle anyway.

Once the sprouts and cabbage are semi-cooked- they look more translucent than they were- add the noodles to the pan and sautee only until they are heated. The noodles are pre-cooked so they don’t need much time at all, just need to warm up. in the last few minutes, crack an egg or two in there, and scramble it up. Take all of these things out of the pan and set aside in a bowl.

Put shrimp in the pan, and sautee until just undercooked than add everyone back into the pan, let them all come up to temperature then, the most fun part, dump the sauce over it! toss it around and make sure everything gets coated with the nutty goodness. Then plate it! Garnish with plenty of chopped scallions, cilantro and some of those bean sprouts if you managed to save them.

Voila, craving complete, and without all the carb’ers-remorse. There weren’t any pics of this, but that is because it was thrown in a bowl when it was done (for hunger situation, see above) and I didn’t have the patience to take a pretty picture. Trust, it was good.

-Stine