Veggie (and peanut free, in this case) Pad Thai

So last week, two of my friends had a baby. Their first! He's the cutest peanut there ever was and I'm so in awe of the fact that my peers (and not, y'know, people a decade older than me) have produced this incredible little life! And he's a lucky dude to have his incredible parents.

The rabbinical school that Jake (Dad) and I attend can be amazing when it comes to community, so it's no real surprise that another friend had the smarts to organize folks to bring the new family dinner a few times a week.

I just got back from meeting the baby and seeing my buddies as no-longer-expectant parents. And all I had to do was make Pad Thai.

Good. Trade.

This recipe is a little unorthodox, because it needed to be peanut-free. If you want to, you can definitely sub peanuts for the cashews. Also, because I'm a vegetarian, I don't use oyster sauce. The recipe that I was working from calls for about a TBS added towards the end. It thickens the sauce slightly. If you use oyster sauce, cut back on the soy sauce a tad.

Ingredients

• 2 TBS canola oil 
• 1 block tofu, pressed and cut into thin triangles
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp tumeric (optional, but nice)
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced 
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped into florets
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 medium green pepper, cut into strips
• 1 inch piece of ginger, sliced thinly
• 1 lb rice noodes
• 1/3 c. water + 2 TBS rice vinegar
• 3 eggs
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 1/3 cup cashews, smashed up into bits (it's ok to be violent with your food)
• 2 TBS lime juice
• 2 small carrots, peeled (if you like) and julienned
• 4 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
• sriracha to taste
• salt to taste
• lime and cashews to garnish

Procedure

• Fry your tofu!

• heat the oil in a large wok over medium heat. 
• sprinkle the tumeric over the oil, turning the pan so it's evenly distributed
• place the tofu triangles in the wok in a single layer (you will likely need to do two batches), let them sizzle and get crispy for a couple of minutes, then flip. Sprinkle in some salt and let them crisp on the other side. Remove to a paper towel so the grease can drain and repeat with the second batch if necessary. Try to scrape most of the bits out of the wok so they don't burn later.

• Cook your noodles according to package directions. Err on the side of them being just sliiiiightly underdone (maybe a minute less than recommended). Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water, then mix with 1 TBS of soy sauce
• While cooking the noodles, cook the broccoli and mushrooms

• heat 1 TBS oil over medium-high heat and add the broccoli and 1/3 of the garlic. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until the edges are looking a little crispy, then add 2 TBS water and cover the wok so it steams. 
• When the water has evaporated, add the mushrooms and stir-fry for about two minutes. If the noodles are done at this point, just keep going. Otherwise, remove the wok from the heat until the noodles have caught up. 
• Put the whole shebang together!


• Turn the heat back on if you had to cut it.
• Add a little more oil and the garlic, ginger, and pepper. Stir-fry for about a minute over medium-high, then turn down slightly and add the vinegar-water mixture and noodles, and tofu. Let everything cook, stir-frying away, for about 3 minutes
  
• Turn heat to medium low. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them together. Push everything to the side to create a space for the eggs in the wok and pour in. Scramble them until they're basically solid and then fold in with everything else

• Add the maple syrup and soy sauce and stir together

• Add the carrots, scallions, cashews, lime juice, a dash of sriracha, and a bit of salt. Taste and add more lime juice or soy sauce if needed. Serve immediately with additional soy sauce, sriracha, lime juice, and cashews to garnish.