THAI STYLE RICE NOODLE STIR FRY (DRUNKEN NOODLES)

This dish is AMAZING and you have to make it if you like Thai noodle dishes like "Drunken Noodles." I made it as a surprise for my husband who adores Drunken Noodles and he thought it was spectacular. I did not have wide noodles so used brown rice stick noodles that I had on hand.

You can find the recipe at “Vegan Richa” recipe blog: VEGAN THAI SKILLET NOODLES (DRUNKEN NOODLES)

For folks living in Lexington, I found the vegan "fish sauce" at Yu Yu Asian Supermarket. Can't say I like that the ingredients included "fish sauce flavor" (what the heck is that?) but given that this was a rare treat and the recipe only called for 1 TBSP I went for it. Next time I will leave it out and see how it tastes.

This recipe is a one skillet adaptation of a Chinese-inspired Thai dish called Pad Kee Mao ("Drunken Noodles"). It does not contain alcohol. There are many theories as to how it got its name. Some theories included:

-person who developed the recipe was drunk and hungry and used whatever ingredients he found at home

-originally contained rice wine

-to handle the heat (when contains a lot of peppers) you have to be drunk

I used broccolini in this recipe. What is broccolini you ask? Read this blog article from “Bon Appetit” to find out.

What I did and clarifications:

-Did not use oil so when vegetables wanted to stick to the hot pan added a splash of water

-Used 3/4 cup sliced onion weighing 93 grams

-Used 4 cloves of garlic weighing 16 grams

-Used serrano pepper, removed seeds from half but it was a bit too spicy for my husband so next time will remove seeds from the whole pepper. I finely chopped the pepper. Mine weighed 15 grams after seeds removed.

-Used fresh shiitake mushrooms, 7 ounces and chopped instead of sliced

-Used reduced sodium tamari instead of soy sauce

-When given the option between 2 cups water or broth, used 2 1/2 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth

-Did not add extra salt

-Used brown rice sticks instead of wide rice noodles

-Used a whole red bell pepper, chopped, was a heaping cup weighing 149 gms

-Chose broccolini, mine was 6 oz

-Doubled the sauce (on the recipe starting from soy sauce/tamari-mine reduced sodium- thru the white pepper)

-Used lots more Thai basil, maybe 6-8 TBSP after chopped

-Added 2 sliced scallions towards the end (did not just use as a garnish)