Crab and Smoked Chicken Pad Thai Noodles

Pad Thai is the most searched Thai dish on the internet and one of the most commonly disappointing things people cook at home. The reason is almost always the same - not enough heat. A domestic hob can't get a wok to the temperature a street food cart or commercial burner can, and without that heat the whole thing turns soft and sweet and flat.

There are ways around it. If you have a garden and a barbecue, put the wok directly over the flames. You can lift it away to control the heat but when you need that intense burst to get some wok hei into the noodles, the coals will give it to you in a way no hob can. If that's not an option, help the wok out before you start - make the sauce separately, melt the palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce together in a pan and caramelise it before anything else begins. That way the sauce doesn't need as much work at the wok stage and you're not losing heat trying to cook it from scratch in the pan.

The noodles matter too. Soak them in cold water for at least 2 hours beforehand, overnight if you can. They'll soften enough to be pliable and easy to stir fry without absorbing water. If you boil them like pasta they take on moisture on the outside first, which means they stick to the pan, overcook in parts and undercook in others, and get shredded by the time you've finished moving them around. Not a good look.

This version uses smoked chicken and brown crab meat, which is how we used to run it as a lunch special at Farang. When we were making it in the restaurant we used Swaledale Butchers in Yorkshire - they cold smoked the chicken alongside their bacon so it went in still raw, and we cooked it from there. At home your best option is to get some colour and smoke into chicken thighs on a barbecue, then finish them in the pad Thai. If neither option is available, use regular chicken in a very hot wok and don't move it for the first minute - you'll get some char and smoke into the meat that way.

The brown crab meat is the other thing worth talking about. It melts into the sauce as you toss the noodles and wraps its flavour around everything. Rich, savoury, completely different from what most people expect from a pad Thai. Surf and turf of the highest degree, and a good reason to make this version rather than the standard one.

Crab and Smoked Chicken Pad Thai

Serves: 2 Prep: 15 minutes plus 2 hours soaking Cook: 10 minutes Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

For the pad Thai sauce

• 50ml thick tamarind water

• 50g palm sugar

• 2-3 tbsp fish sauce (or Payst pad Thai stir fry sauce)

For the pad Thai

• 150g flat rice noodles, 5mm thickness, soaked in cold water for at least 2 hours

• 50ml vegetable oil

• 1 banana shallot, peeled and thinly sliced

• 2 medium eggs, cracked into a bowl

• 150g smoked chicken, cooked and shredded

• 50g brown crab meat

• 50g beansprouts, washed

• 20g Chinese chives, finely chopped

• 10g toasted peanuts, semi-pounded

• 2 long dried red chillies, toasted and ground to a powder

To serve

• 20g roasted peanuts

• Extra chilli powder or chopped bird's eye chilli

• Extra beansprouts

• Chinese chives

• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Method

1. Make the sauce first. Gently melt the palm sugar and tamarind water together in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until smooth and starting to caramelise. Add the fish sauce, stir and set aside next to the wok with all other ingredients ready to go.

2. Heat the oil in a large wok over the highest heat possible. Add the eggs and let them cook for about 10 seconds before breaking them up into chunks. Add the shallots immediately and stir fry for a minute until translucent.

3. Add the soaked noodles, shaking off any excess water first. Stir fry constantly, spreading them across the wok and keeping them moving so they don't stick. Cook until they start to turn translucent.

4. Push the noodles to one side. Add a little more oil to the centre of the wok and add the smoked chicken. Let it sit for a moment to get some colour before tossing everything together.

5. Pour the tamarind sugar sauce around the inside edges of the wok so it caramelises as it runs into the noodles. Add the brown crab meat and toss everything together to combine.

6. Turn off the heat. Add the fish sauce, chilli powder, half the peanuts, beansprouts and Chinese chives. Toss to warm through.

7. Taste - it should be sweet, salty, smoky and savoury with a gentle sour note from the tamarind. Adjust with a little more fish sauce if needed.

8. Serve immediately on a large plate with remaining peanuts, extra chilli powder, beansprouts, Chinese chives and lime wedges alongside for people to season themselves.

Chef's notes

Don't skip the cold soak on the noodles. Two hours minimum, overnight if possible. Boiling them is the most common mistake and it ruins the texture before you've even started cooking.

The pad Thai stir fry sauce is available for next day delivery at payst.co.uk - it has the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce already combined and properly balanced. More recipes at faranglondon.co.uk.