Sunday, October 3, 2010

Pad Thai


So, anyone who knows my dad, or his cooking, knows he has a special relationship with soy sauce. I mean, really, I grew up with some pretty delicious marinated chicken, grilled salmon, and even some awesome stir fries and sesame noodles for a Jewish girl in the suburbs of Boston. I learned how to whip up a really good marinade with a few simple ingredients, the most important of which is clearly soy sauce. However, one might argue there is a time and a place for soy sauce - brisket, does not need soy sauce, neither does chili. Sorry dad.

But, since my dad loves soy sauce so much, it seemed fitting to introduce him to some other delicious Asian ingredients. Almost two years ago, my dad received a yummy gift basket filled with Sriracha, Oyster Sauce, Mae Ploy (sweet chili sauce) etc. He also received all the ingredients he needed to make authentic Pad Thai… Pad Thai sauce (a recommended brand, not some supermarket junk), rice noodles, minced turnip, peanuts, etc.

Well, this summer, I happened to notice all of these ingredients sitting untouched in my dad’s kitchen. That had to be fixed. So, with little effort, I convinced him we should tackle Pad Thai.

Cornmeal Pancakes


It’s a cool Sunday morning and I’ve been up for hours (early to bed, early to rise) so it seemed like the perfect time to linger over a cup of coffee and create something new in the kitchen. I pulled out my favorite cookbook, the Joy of Cooking, and settled on cornmeal pancakes. On any other day I would have added fruit to them, but alas, the lack of fresh produce kept them simple today. If you want some really good banana cornmeal pancakes I’d highly recommend CafĂ© Heaven in P-Town... but I suppose that isn’t a very helpful suggestion. So in the meantime, I recommend, getting out one bowl and a few easy ingredients and whipping up your own.

Happy Pancaking!