Pad Thai Goong

Ingredients

• 160g dried flat rice noodles, 5mm wide
• 12 raw prawns, peeled and deveined
• 3 tbsp tamarind concentrate
• 3 tbsp palm sugar, chopped
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 40g preserved sweet radish, chopped
• 40g pressed firm tofu, cut into small batons
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 150g beansprouts
• 4 spring onions, cut into 4cm lengths
• 50g roasted peanuts, roughly crushed
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Chilli flakes, to serve

Before you cook

• Soak the dried rice noodles in warm tap water for 40 minutes until pliable but still firm, then drain them well
• Peel and devein the prawns and pat them dry
• Cut the pressed tofu into small batons and chop the preserved radish
• Crush the roasted peanuts coarsely under the flat of a knife
• Trim the spring onions into 4cm lengths and set half the beansprouts aside raw for serving

Steps

1. Combine the tamarind concentrate, palm sugar and fish sauce in a small pan over low heat.
2. Stir the sauce for three minutes until the sugar dissolves into a syrup, then take it off the heat.
3. Taste the sauce; it should hit sour, sweet and salty in roughly equal weight, so adjust before you cook.
4. Set a wok over your highest heat and add two tablespoons of the oil.
5. Fry the prawns for ninety seconds until they are just pink, then lift them out to a plate.
6. Add the remaining oil, then the garlic, tofu, dried shrimp and preserved radish, and stir-fry for one minute.
7. Tip in the drained noodles and pour the sauce straight over them.
8. Toss the noodles constantly for two to three minutes until they soften and the sauce coats every strand.
9. Push the noodles to one side of the wok and crack the eggs into the bare space.
10. Let the eggs set for twenty seconds, break the yolks, then fold the noodles through them.
11. Return the prawns to the wok along with half the beansprouts and all the spring onions.
12. Toss everything for a final forty-five seconds so the sprouts stay crunchy.
13. Slide onto two plates and top with crushed peanuts, the raw beansprouts, lime wedges and chilli flakes.