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Egg Net Pad Thai
Egg Net Pad Thai
- Preparation time 20 mins
- Serves 6 people
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Ever wonder how restaurants make those beautiful egg nets?
In this Pad Thai recipe, home cook extraordinaire, Camellia Ling Aebischer shows us a simple way to master the egg net. Once you have that technique down, we’ll bring it all together with healthy Pad Thai that’s seasoned to perfection. Learn how it’s all made below.
Ingredients
For the egg nets
- 4 eggs
For the sauce
- ½ cup palm sugar
- ½ cup fish sauce
- ½ cup cooking tamarind
- ½ cup water
For the pad thai
- 375g rice noodles, soaked in cold water for one hour
- 2 Tbsp neutral oil (e.g. canola)
- 200g prawns, sliced in half lengthways
- 150g firm tofu, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 Tbsp crushed peanuts
- 1 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
- ¼ cup garlic chives, cut into 4cm lengths
- 2 cups beansprouts, loosely packed
Garnish
- 4 eggs, to fry (optional)
- Fresh lime wedges, to serve
Method
- In a small bowl, crack four eggs, season with a pinch of salt and beat lightly. Place the mix into a clean squeezy bottle and set aside.
- Preheat a medium non-stick pan over medium heat. Add a little neutral oil, then take your squeeze bottle of the egg mix and draw a net pattern with the egg by zigzagging lengthways covering the base of the pan, then turning 90 degrees and repeating the zigzag to create a hash pattern.
- Allow the egg net to set fully before removing from the pan. Set aside on a clean dinner plate then repeat with the remaining egg to make four nets.
- Wipe or rinse out the same pan, then place back on the heat and add the palm sugar. Melt the sugar and allow it to caramelise. Meanwhile, mix the fish sauce, tamarind and water. Once the sugar begins to brown, add the fish sauce mix. Be careful as it may splatter a little (the sugar is very hot). Turn the heat down and mix well until the caramel is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
- For the pad Thai, place a large wok over high heat to preheat. Add oil and prawns, toss to cook briefly then add tofu and garlic and stir-fry for a few minutes until tofu becomes golden at the edges.
- Add the noodles, sauce and toss to coat everything well, continue to cook until noodles become slightly translucent. Add the peanuts, chilli, garlic chives and beansprouts and toss until sprouts are wilted slightly.
- To serve, place a portion of pad Thai noodles into the centre of the egg net (around 1 cup), roll it over and tuck the edges of the egg net under the noodles to make a neat package. This is easiest done with clean hands.
- Once you’ve assembled each egg net pad thai, place a large frypan over medium heat, add neutral oil and fry four eggs until crispy on the bottom and the whites are cooked through.
- Place a fried egg on top of each pad thai bundle, then garnish with a little extra beansprouts, chives, peanuts, chilli and a lime wedge.
