hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to the Bay Area restaurant scene with a shot at the tofu pad thai found at Farmhouse Kitchen in Oakland, CA. For those unfamiliar, Farmhouse is located on the Jack London Square waterfront (with their original first location also found in the SF Mission district), and yes as many know, one of their more popular pad thai dishes does feature lobster tail which I…do not have the budget for but! If someone here wants to sponsor an episode of lobster pad thai, hit me up…! 

Until then though we’re gonna take a shot at their slightly more budget conscious tofu and shrimp pad thai, which, as with anything featuring tofu, poses the challenge of “what to do with this bland and tasteless protein known as tofu?” Today we’re going to navigate this with a corn starch breading and shallow fry inspired by our Mongolian Beef recipe. Then rounding this out, i’ve FINALLY gotten my hands on some tamarind paste (instead of the premixed lee kum kee stuff we’ve been using). So! We’re gonna be pairing that with a few usual suspects here like fish sauce and lime juice, as well as a little bit of inspiration from Chinese cuisine with a bit of oyster sauce to give our dish a bit of an extra briny umami. Hope you try it.

 

Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger

  • 4 Thai chiles

  • 1 large shallot

  • 2 medium carrots

  • 1/2 cup cilantro leaves

  • 1 lime

  • 1 lb extra firm tofu

  • 6-8 shrimp

  • 1 lb fresh rice noodles (or dried rice stick)

  • 6 oz bean sprouts

  • 3 eggs

  • 1/2 cup raw peanuts

  • 1/2 cup corn starch

  • peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp fish sauce

  • 2 tbsp brown sugar

  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce

  • 1/2 lime (juice)

  • 2 tbsp tamarind paste

PREP

  • CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside

  • FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside

  • SLICE the Thai chiles thinly, set aside

  • DICE the shallots, set aside

  • JULIENNE the carrots, set aside

  • DESTEM and slice the cilantro, set aside

  • SLICE half the lime into wedges, reserve the second half, set aside

  • PEEL and devein the shrimp, set aside

  • SEPARATE the rice noodles, set aside

  • WHISK the eggs, set aside

  • LARGE DICE the tofu, then coat in 1/2 cup corn starch, set aside

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 1/2 cus peanut oil to a wok and long yao

  • ADD the tofu 10-15 pieces at a time and shallow fry for 3-5 minutes until golden brown, agitating constantly, then remove and let cool

  • REMOVE fryer oil, then wipe down the wok, reheat, add an additional 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the garlic, ginger, and Thai chiles and toss until fragrant for about 15 seconds

  • ADD the shallots and carrots, then toss to combine for 2 minutes

  • ADD the shrimp and bean sprouts and toss to combine for 20 seconds

  • ADD the noodles and sauce in small portions, toss to combine, and repeat until both are incorporated

  • ADD the eggs around the rim of the wok, then gently toss to combine, and remove from heat

  • LOWER heat to medium, then add peanuts and dry toast for 2 minutes until crispy

  • REMOVE the peanuts from heat, add to a zip-lock bag and crush using a mallet

  • FINISH with crushed peanuts and cilantro

 

tagged with woo can cook, pad thai, thai food, thai cooking, thai noodle, tamarind, tamarind paste, pad thai tofu, farmhouse thai, farmhouse kitchen, oakland, oakland restaurant, oakland food