Tofu Pad See Ew

This tofu pad see ew is an easy recipe that comes together in just a few minutes. Prepare the ingredients and then stir-fry together! Serve with lychee mojitos.

Ingredients:

• Rice Noodles: Pad see ew is traditionally made using wide, fresh rice noodles. If you can’t find any, or want to use up noodles in your pantry, you can use dried wide rice noodles.
• Tofu: Use a firm tofu that you can cut into 1-inch cubes. Make sure to squeeze out all the excess water before adding the tofu to you pan!
• Dark Soy Sauce: This sauce is a bit of specialty ingredients, but it’s what gives pad see ew its distinct flavor profile. Dark soy sauce is rich, sticky and sweet.
• Chinese Broccoli: Chinese broccoli can be found in any Asian grocery store (and it’s cheap!) but in a pinch you can use broccolini or regular broccoli. Chinese broccoli is bitter, which balances out the sweetness of the sauce.
• Garlic: Add in minced garlic for its sweet and savory flavor.
• Sauce: Making the pad see ew sauce is simple- it’s just adding a couple of ingredients together. Rice vinegar, dark soy sauce, white sugar (or palm sugar if you can find it), oyster sauce and soy sauce.

How to Make Tofu Pad See Ew

Make this easy recipe is a matter of minutes.

First, prepare all your ingredients- wash and roughly chop your broccoli. Cook your rice noodles if need be and remove the excess water from your tofu.

Add a bit of neutral cooking oil to a pan or wok. Once hot, add in the tofu and let it fry on two sides of the cubes. Once, crisp, add in the garlic and stems of the broccoli. Toss well and push the side. Add in the eggs and scramble quickly.

Toss everything together and add in the stems of the Chinese broccoli. Then, add in the rice noodles and add the sauce on top.

Toss everything together and continue combining until most of the sauce has absorbed into the noodles.

Once combined, let the entire stir fry sit in the pan so caramelization develops on the bottom of the noodles. This is an extra step that is sooo worth it – letting the noodles develop that crispiness will add some texture to the dish.

How to Make Rice Noodles

Traditionally, pad see ew is made with thick fresh rice noodles. These noodles can be difficult to find, even in most Asian grocery stores.

If you are using fresh noodles, it’s easy to simply take them from their package and use them as-is. If they stick together or are difficult to pull apart, put hot water over them and let them soak for a minute or two. Then drain the water and pull the noodles apart to use in your dish.

If you can’t find fresh noodles, use a wide rice noodles that needs to be cooked. Cook the noodles to the package directions and set aside until you are ready to incorporate them into the dish.

Making Fried Tofu for your Pad See Ew

Instead of throwing your tofu into the pot and frying with the aromatics, you can fry the tofu separately.

Soak the tofu overnight in a salt water brine. Then, drain the water and sprinkle the tofu with cornstarch and your favorite seasonings. For this recipe, I would add a bit of garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne pepper.

Toss the tofu well and then air fry at 350°F for 30 minutes, turning the tofu halfway through.

Once the tofu is evenly browned and crunchy, add it to your noodle dish.

Take a look at the directions here to fry tofu.

Pad See Ew Sauce

Making that perfect, restaurant-worthy pad see ew sauce can be a little tricky.

The key ingredient in a pad see ew sauce is dark soy sauce. It’s sweet, sticky and just a touch savory. You can find this ingredients at just about any Asian grocery store.

Add the dark soy sauce to regular soy sauce and combine with white granulated sugar, oyster sauce and rice vinegar. Taste your sauce after combining all the ingredients and see if you’d like it more or less sweet.

To add sweetness to your sauce, add in more dark soy sauce and sugar. To take away some of the sweetness, add in rice vinegar, regular soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Replacements for Pad See Ew Sauce

If you are having issues finding dark soy sauce for your pad see ew, don’t worry! There are a couple replacements that you can use to yield a similar result.

In the soy sauce isle of the grocery store, look for a “sweet soy sauce”. This isn’t as molasses-y as dark soy sauce, but it is very similar. Another option to use as a replacement for dark soy sauce is to aded in extra sugar to your regular soy sauce.

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