Rouxbe

You left out the stock in the second batch.

It's there, you may have missed it.

In the first batch, the stock is added immediately after the noodles cook. In the second, the stock is listed in the prep, but is never added. The video shows the cook going from the noodles straight to adding the egg.

What's the difference between prawns and shrimp? Does it matter in a recipe?

Certainly not a dumb question. In fact, I had to do a little research myself to help you out and I'm still not sure. I always referred to smaller shrimp as shrimp and larger shrimp as prawns... go figure..:) - a statement that clearly highlights my own confusion. And I've cooked for 25 years professionally.

Nevertheless, I found this blog article that might (or might not help) shed some light on the issue for those of you that are curious. Note: quite long.

http://elyclarifies.blogspot.com/2005/03/shrimp-vs-prawns.html (cut and paste).

I guess it comes down to gill structure, if you can believe it.

And other than cooking time, it won't make any difference in most recipes.

This is a very delicous dish! My family enjoyed it a LOT. :)
anyways regarding the missing stock in the second batch. yes it is true...I've gone over that part for five times...must be some glitch.

Thank you to all the sharp eyes that noticed our oversight but as you'll see the glitch has been fixed and you now see the stock being added as per the recipe. It's great to know people are watching the videos so closely, especially when you see how many sets of eyes here missed it. We are only human after all but you've got us wondering if we missed anything else.

Thanks for noticing, now tell us how much you loved the dish.

Made this for dinner.........it was awesome! We always order this when we go out for Thai, and this recipe (we all thought) was better
Thanks!

This is the first dish we made on rouxbe and I must say it was great! We ended up tweaking our second batch by cutting out the dry shrimp. In my opinion Pad Thai shouldn't taste fishy.

If the quality of your dried shrimp is large/plump and moist they really add to the flavour of Pad Thai and are not fishy at all.

Actually it is not about the size! t is about the shell and legs.

Crustaceans are Arthropods that have an ecoskeleton (like a permanent suit of armour). It's not water tight however, which differentiates them
from insects. Crustaceans also have gills and a special aquatic larval stage.

Dividing Crustaceans up gives us 6 classes. Basically, these groups cover:

* Copepods (planktonic swimmies)
* Ostrocods (small marine swimmies)
* Branchiopods (brine shrimp and Daphnia)
* Barnacles
* Branchiurans (parastic)
* Malacostracans (lobster, crabs, woodlice etc.)

It's the Malaconstracans you've asked about, so they divide even further (a very diverse group!)

Here we have Isopods, Amphipods and Decapods. It's the Decapods (meaning 10 legs) that contain all the lobsters, crabs, shrimp and prawns.

So, Mantis shrimp, king prawns, and snapping shrimp are all Decapods (think of that classic "prawn" body plan - long slender body with lots of legs and the head at the front with all the antennae). They're all quite closely related - at least with respect to their "order". After "order", we divide organisms up into "family", then "genus" and "species".

I hope this quickly explains the Phylum Crustacea...to answer your question in one statement:

Prawns and shrimp are very closely related - belonging to the same order (Decapoda). Both can occur in marine, estuarine and freshwater environments, depending in the species in question.

If you look carefully and examine them you can see the difference if it matters to you.

Me- I prefer the sweet flavour of fresh water prawn-just had them barbecued in Bangkok-gorgeous and yummy with loads of garlic. But for Tom Yum smaller shrimp in the shell works perfectly.

I just made this & the cucumber sunimono (sp?) salad and loved them both! The only problem I had is the noodles & the eggs were sticking to my wok. I know I used plenty of oil, but both batches had the same problem. I had to scrape noodles & eggs off my wok when I cleaned my kitchen. Any suggestions?

Two things are really important to avoid sticking.

1) the wok and oil have to be very hot before adding your ingredients - just to the smoking point.

2) your wok should be well "seasoned". Seasoning a wok is a bit tricky but it is very important. You season a wok (or pan) by heating with oil for a long time. When heated, the metal expands and opens up the pores in the metal. The oil can then go into the pours to lubricate it. If your wok (or pan) is not heated through before adding the noodles, when the metal expands, it will expose non lubricated surfaces that LOVE starchy noodles and eggs.

I found some types through google:
http://www.ehow.com/how_1176_season-wok.html

Keep in mind, the quality of your Wok is also important. And you never want to season a non-stick wok.

I ended up buying Tamarind concentrate (didn't realize it) and added the 6 tbsp. to the sauce. Whew! Way too strong. So I threw out that batch and started over. I guessed and only used 1 tbsp. and it turned out delish! I only found M sized noodles as well. I think my next step is to find a good Asian store in Arizona!

Tamarind concentrate is much stronger than the brick of tamarind (the one you soak). Good thing you realized this before you made the Pad Thai, thanks for pointing that out...great tip.

Medium sized noodles will also work fine, if you cannot find the larger size. In fact some restaurants only use the medium size.

Finding a good Asian store in your neighborhood is also a great idea. When I really started to get into Thai food I found the ingredients hard to find, so I called all of the local Thai restaurants and asked them where they bought their ingredients. I now have several stores to choose.

When I lived in Australia, prawns were the larger of the beast. Shrimp were the little guys, as their name implies.

The key to this smokin' recipe has to be the tamarind paste that is the foundation of the entire thing. I have now done it twice, and each time, although slightly different, got astonishing responses from some of my most experienced (read critical) and well travelled foodie friends. And do make certain you make the effort to hunt down the palm sugar - it really is different than anything more readily available out there...

Sorry if this sound silly, but what do u mean by "never want to season a non-stick wok"?
I used a non-stick wok to cook the dish and I had also "oil-ed" the rice noodle a little bit before cooking. Anyways, me and husband love the dish and this is only my first attempt!!!