Drunken Noodles

Have I mentioned how much I love Thai food?  No, well, then let me tell you, I love Thai food.  One of my favorite Thai dishes is Drunken Noodles.   Not to long ago, I was out to eat and was enjoying how delicious my meal was when I thought how great it would be if I could make it at home.

So I searched Pinterest, of course, and found this recipe.  It has a few obscure ingredients (like 3 different types of soy sauce) but if you go to your local Asian market, you should be able to find them.  And the great thing about shopping at Asian markets is that they are so cheap. I recommend buying any Asian ingredients at your local Asian grocery even if they have the item at your regular grocery store, because it will be twice as big and a quarter of the price.

So the first step to making this recipe is soaking the noodles ahead of time in warm water for about an hour.  Then I put them in boiling water for 45-50 seconds.  That's what the package recommends for soup.  For stir fry it recommends that you can just stir fry in oil for a few minutes (which is what I do with Pad Thai).  I wasn't sure which category the drunken noodles fell into so I boiled them, and it seemed to come out the texture I wanted.  But you can choose which you think works better.

Cut up the veggies.  I love how pretty they are... such vibrant and contrasting colors.

So one of the key ingredients is the Thai Basil.  This is different then regular Basil.  If you have no other option you can use regular Basil but it's not quite the same.  So if you are able to get it, take the extra trip to get the good stuff. It's totally worth it!

The other key ingredient is Thai Chili peppers.  You totally don't need that many to make it hot.  I halved the total recipe  and only had 4 Thai Chilies and it was totally hot enough.  Though that is totally dependent on your level of tolerance for hotness.  For this recipe to taste really genuine, it really needs to have a kick to it.   And look at all that garlic... Mmm, yummy!

Look at all that yummy goodness. It was totally delicious and tasted like a dish from a true Thai restaurant.  I love to go out to eat, but sometimes it's nice to be able to get the same food at only a fraction of the price.  

 If you want to try the recipe yourself:  Drunken Noodles from Epicurious.

Note:  I followed the recipe and used chicken the first time.  It turned out exactly right.  The next time I made the recipe, I used tofu.  Unfortunately the tofu didn't soak up the hotness the same way the chicken did, so it was a lot less flavorful.  I still would like to figure out how to make it with tofu so that I can add it to my meatless dish collection.  I'll update you when I figure out how to successfully do that.