#drunks noodles

I’m spending quite a bit of time at the moment re-visiting some of my earlier recipes, making some amendments where needed and updating the photos- some of my earlier attempts were not very pretty!! Pad Mee Mao (Drunk’s noodles; so named as they’re just right after a night’s drinking- think spicy, greasy and quick to make- sooo much better than a nasty takeaway kebab!) hold a special place in my heart; it’s the meal I had in Manchester’s China town whilst on my hen do back in 2009 and I made a point then of learning the recipe.

There are a couple of changes to the other version of this recipe I made back in 2014- simply I’ve changed a few of the veggies and I now use the (optional) additions of green peppercorns and krachai (fingerroot) for added punchiness. I also think it’s essential that you try to get fresh wide rice noodles (sen yai) for this dish- they’re soft and stretchy but not chewy and suck up all the sauce, giving you a relatively dry dish. I’ve used pork rather than chicken but that’s totally up to you, this is a very good candidate for a purely veggie version.

For 4 small/ 3 large portions use:

• 2 pork steaks, trimmed of fat, cut into thin slices
• 400g or thereabouts of fresh rice noodles, separated into individual strands
• a handful of green beans, cut into inch long pieces
• a carrot, peeled and sliced- I have a fancy gadget- a komkom that does the star shaped edges
• 6-8 baby corn cobs, sliced into inch long pieces
• a large bunch of sweet basil or holy basil, leaves ripped off stems
• (optional) a tablespoon of green peppercorns
• (optional) a few fingers of krachai (fingeroot), cut into thin slivers
• 4 large cloves of garlic, peeled
• 4 small red chillies
• a very big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of fish sauce
• a small splash of dark soy sauce
• a pinch of sugar
• vegetable oil for frying

• Lightly bash the garlic and red chillies into a rough paste
• Heat a splash of oil in a wok until hot and very briefly fry the garlic/chilli paste
• Throw in the pork (if using) and stir fry for a minute
• Throw in the veggies and stir fry, tossing everything together
• If using, throw in the green peppercorns and krachai and mix, cooking for 2 minutes
• Put all the sauces and sugar in together, stir the ingredients through.
• Put in all the noodles, mixing very well so they absorb the sauces and colour. Careful not to overcook- rice noodles can become stodgy very quickly- only cook as long as needed, around 1 minute.
• Toss through the sweet basil leaves, sprinkling some over the top of the finished dish.