Stir up dinner with pad Thai

Experiment with new flavors for satisfying stir fry

Pad Thai is a classic that hits on all taste levels. It’s sweet, sour, salty and bitter all in one. Making it at home takes a little effort, but once you do, it will become part of your repertoire. You can experiment, as I did, with different ingredient combinations and learn to adjust the sauce to your own taste.

A traditional pad Thai dish — pad is Thai for stir-fry — consists of rice noodles, tofu, shrimp, crushed peanuts, fish sauce, bean sprouts, eggs, garlic and chiles. But you can substitute chicken or pork for the tofu and shrimp or use a variety.

The sauce in today’s recipe is adapted from a pad Thai recipe at foodnetwork.com.

Look for tamarind nectar at Asian or Hispanic specialty stores — I bought a 12-ounce can for 50 cents at a bodega — or the ethnic aisle at some grocery stores.

If you’re not familiar with fish sauce, or nam pla, it’s a condiment used in many southeast Asian dishes. It resembles soy sauce in color and consistency and is made from fermented fish. Take a whiff and you’ll find it really stinks, but that aroma goes away once cooked. Thai Kitchen fish sauce is a common brand sold at most grocery stores. A 7-ounce bottle is about $3.49.

Rice-stick noodles, made from rice flour and water, are the go-to noodle for pad Thai. They need to be soaked in warm water to soften before using. Once cooked, they have a chewy texture.