Brooklyn Pad Thai for the win

I had a moment of serendipity this week when I saw a Tea and Sympatico mention that the Brooklyn Pad Thai from Vegan with a Vengeance is one of her favourites. It was one of the dishes I planned to cook this week, so I was powerless not to fetch out my wok and get on with it!

My experiences of pad thai have not been great to date. The first time I ordered it, I didn't realise it had egg in it (it wasn't mentioned on the menu) and was deeply disappointed when it arrived with eggy shreds in abundance. Grim!

I'm not sure I've ever ordered it since, so I wasn't totally sure what to expect when I decided to make it - but with tofu, lemongrass and peanuts, I was pretty sure it couldn't go wrong.

I subbed the beansprouts for grated carrot and broccoli, and the red onion for white. Those blighters chiefly won out for reasons of 'hooray, if I use these then I don't have to go to Tesco again!'

Oh man, did it not go wrong. It went right. Very right.

It was a perfect example of the sort of alchemy that happens when you taste the sauce before it goes into the pan and wonder, 'is it meant to taste like that?' Then, when you stick it on a plate and taste it again, you wonder what weird pixie dust was sprinkled over it when you weren't looking to transform it into a thick, sweet and sour wonderfood.

I may never have made Brooklyn Pad Thai before, but you know what they say - if at first you do succeed, thai, thai and thai again....