Bon Appétit joins Chef Joel Chidensee Watthanawongwat of Soothr to make his perfect pad thai recipe. Soothr is one of New York City’s hottest Thai restaurants, focusing on Yaowarat cuisine. Learn how Watthanawongwat elevates this traditional Thai street food dish, from the importance of using fish sauce (not soy sauce!) to making his signature egg net.
00:00Hi, I'm Joel Watanak Wengwat. I am the chef owner at Soot in New York City. Today, I will be making my perfect version of Pad Thai.
00:16The main concept of Soot, we want to focus on the Yawarat style food. It's a combination of Chinese influence with Thai ingredients.
00:24We wanted to just open up a small noodle shop and then after that, everything just blew up.
00:31Pad Thai is one of the most popular noodles here. This thing looks really intricate, but it's actually very easy to make.
00:40To get started, I'm just gonna start with the noodles. Pad Thai is all about rice noodles. When we soak it, the texture is still firm and it tastes amazing.
00:49I'm gonna give this guy a spa day. At the restaurant, we actually soak this overnight in a cold water, like eight hours.
00:56Just because this one is a dry version, you want to make sure that it's soft. So then when you put it in the wok, it cooks like properly.
01:04But if you're in a rush, you could do it quick. Just use warm water. If you can take the time, please take the time.
01:10If you do a shortcut, you might just have to compromise that quality of the texture.
01:15I actually have a batch that I did soak last night. So we have this noodles that is fully soaked and the texture is amazing.
01:24The noodles should just bend, not snap.
01:29What makes the perfect Pad Thai sauce would just be these four simple ingredients here.
01:34We have our shallot fish sauce, tamarind paste and table sugar.
01:39All of these ingredients play their own, like, you know, important role. You can't really miss any of this.
01:44Alright, I'm just gonna bring this over to the pot and let's get it cooking.
01:48So you want to caramelize the shallot first. Cook it through until it turns a little brown.
01:54This usually takes about three to five minutes. It brings out the sweetness from the shallot and the aroma in it.
02:01Make sure that you, like, stir it so it doesn't get burned. Maybe low heat could be nice too.
02:09The flavor of the tamarind is, like, the sourness and the tang in the sauce.
02:15So this tamarind paste is pre-made. But in Thailand, they actually use, like, a real tamarind and squeeze that juice out of it.
02:23It's quite a labor work. If you're making it at home, you should go buy a jar. It's much easier.
02:28I'm going to add in the fish sauce. So the good Pad Thai, you need to have fish sauce.
02:34It has to be fish sauce. You cannot use soy sauce. No.
02:38The fish sauce gives it, like, you know, the salty flavor.
02:41We are looking for that, that reduced, like, texture, not too, like, runny.
02:46The sugar that we adding to the sauce gives it the sweetness.
02:50The palm sugar in Thailand is quite common.
02:53I prefer this table sugar in the Pad Thai sauce than the palm sugar.
02:57Because when I cook the sauce, it's easier to melt and then dissolve it into the sauce.
03:03All of our flavor elements are in here. The sweet, the salty, and the tang.
03:09I'm just going to let it simmer for a few minutes until it gives you that, like, thicker, reduced texture.
03:16This is the consistency you're looking for.
03:19So it's still, like, liquidy, like, you know, but it's not super runny like water because the sugar gives it that syrup texture.
03:27All right, we're going to let this cool down for a little bit and it's going to get thicker.
03:31Now I'm going to focus on my egg net.
03:35The egg net is actually pretty much an omelette in that, like, net shape.
03:40It's just going to be, like, a design of, like, less pattern.
03:43At the end, I'm going to wrap my Pad Thai with the egg net.
03:46This is one way of how we elevate the common sweet food Pad Thai into, like, a nicer presentation.
03:53So I'm going to whisk this egg up and what's important about this is you actually have to sift this.
04:03This just to ensure that the egg texture is absolutely smooth.
04:07And the trick to make the egg net is this squeeze bottle.
04:11You have to use this.
04:13I like working this with low heat because the egg net is quite intricate.
04:17It gets cooked really quickly.
04:19Sometimes you just have to do it a couple of, like, times first before you find that right temperature.
04:25I like to do this across and then I'm going to do this way.
04:32In Thailand, they actually use the whole omelette sheet.
04:35But here, we like to make it a little bit more creative.
04:38So we do it like a lace pattern.
04:41This, you have to be quite gentle when you push it because it might break.
04:45You could actually, like, you know, sometimes, like, hold it off the heat.
04:48Because the heat still stays with the pan and you still get that nice crust like this one.
04:53You just, like, push it.
04:55So now, like, you know, your whole sheet is moving.
04:58It's easier to grab it.
05:01And voila.
05:02So we're going to move on to making the pad thai.
05:05Let's get walking.
05:08So now we have to walk to get started on our pad thai.
05:11Pad thai means, pad means fry, stir fry in Thai.
05:16Thai is Thai.
05:17All together, pad thai means stir fry the Thai way.
05:20I got all my ingredients ready.
05:22We have our protein.
05:23We have shrimps.
05:24I have my shrimp ready.
05:26Peel, devein, and butterfly.
05:28The reason that we want to butterfly this open because, you know, we want it to be cooked nicely on the inside.
05:36And they look better when they open up.
05:38So the chives would add the flavor to it.
05:41Almost like a garlic aroma in your dish.
05:44And we also have the Thai sweet pico radish.
05:47This one also gives you flavor and texture.
05:50It's sweet and it has a little crunch.
05:53When you bite into it, it's really nice.
05:55And next we have our bean sprouts here.
05:57The classic ingredient.
05:58When you bite into it, a little crunch with, like, water.
06:01I have my pad thai sauce here.
06:03It's all cooled down.
06:04And this is the texture that you're actually looking for.
06:07It's still runny, but it still has that, like, thicker texture.
06:11I like to put the egg in the pad thai just because, like, you know, we want something to coat the wok.
06:17And, of course, the main guy here, noodles.
06:20This is the noodle that I soaked from last night.
06:23They're all soft, but still, like, you know, the texture is still firm.
06:27And it doesn't snap.
06:29This is the perfect texture.
06:31This wok is a Chinese-style wok.
06:34So, in Thailand, when people fry stuff in small towns, they still use the charcoal stove to make the pad thai.
06:41So, you get that charred flavor.
06:43So, when we hear the charred flavor that we can get it out, it's from this wok here.
06:47With the high heat, that's how you get the charred flavor.
06:50You can use just a regular pan.
06:52I think it's fine, too.
06:53It's just gonna maybe, like, take a little bit longer than the wok.
06:56As long as you could get the high heat, that should work just perfectly.
07:00It's smoking now.
07:02So, I'm gonna put in some oil.
07:06Cracking the egg.
07:08I think it looks good.
07:10Trim.
07:12Usually, we'll put, like, 7 in.
07:14You can lower your heat as well.
07:16So, you see how quickly this goes?
07:19I usually do about, like, 200 grams of noodles.
07:22You're looking for that sharp and soft, like, texture of the noodles.
07:27It's kind of hard to tell by the eyes, but you can feel it with your hands, like, you know, when you touch that.
07:34If you don't cook it properly before you put in the sauce, the sugar will lock your noodles.
07:39And your noodles will stop the cooking process.
07:42I like doing a lot of tossing just because I don't want it to be burned or anything gets, like, overly cooked.
07:49The trick is, if you have high heat, you have to control your hand.
07:52You have to be really quick.
07:53But then again, you can lower your heat a little bit if you can't, like, you know, go fast with your hand.
07:58Like, you know, it works fine as well.
08:00So, when I put the sauce in, I actually put it on the noodles because if you put it on the rim, the sugar can get burned.
08:08And then make sure that you go through it, like, you know, evenly and smooth it out.
08:12So, I'm looking for the color.
08:14Maybe I'm just going to add in a little bit more sauce.
08:18I think it's good.
08:20I'm going to put in some chives, bean sprouts, and a bit of the radish.
08:26I just cut the heat after I put in the vegetables because those will get cooked very quickly.
08:33So, let's get it on the plate.
08:36When I plate the pad thai, I want to, like, put all the shrimp on the top.
08:40You want to showcase your nice ingredients and the colors.
08:44I'm going to save a couple of shrimps to put it on the egg net.
08:47So, I have this egg net ready.
08:49So, it's very simple.
08:51I'm just going to wrap it around the pad thai.
08:54And also, we're going to put the shrimps on top just so you see more shrimp.
09:01Baby bananas, put it here.
09:03And also, the petals, we're going to put it here.
09:07This is my favorite part.
09:09I love putting lamb in the pad thai.
09:11It's very typical in Thailand that, like, people like to add a little bit more sugar to the pad thai.
09:16And also, the chili flake.
09:19And lastly, is the crushed peanuts.
09:23Everyone loves peanuts.
09:25The peanuts add the crunchy texture to it and also the flavor.
09:29You know, when you bite into the soft noodles, you have the crunchiness from the peanuts and the spiciness from the chili flake.
09:35This is my perfect pad thai.
09:38So, I like squeeze the lamb on it.
09:41I'm just going to mix everything all in with this chili flake and the peanuts.
09:48This is what you're looking for.
09:50The long noodles.
09:55So good.
09:56The noodle, it's soft but it's bouncy.
09:59It's a great texture.
10:01The sauce is well absorbed.
10:03The taste is amazing.
10:05All the flavors.
10:07Sweet, tangerine, peanuts, spicy.
10:11Everything is like flavor bomb.
10:13This is everything pad thai is supposed to be.
10:18Pad thai is such a great dish to make it at home.
10:22As long as you get all your ingredients ready,
10:25it's just simple.
10:26It's worth the, you know, the time.
10:28If you get the right ingredients, you get the right pad thai.
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