- My favorite street dish is drunken noodles.
Spicy, aromatic, flavorful.
To me, it's a perfect dish.
Look at that.
Boom!
Bam!
Oops! (buzzer buzzing)
Hey there, friends.
My name is Arnold, and I am a chef and restaurateur,
but today, you are in my home kitchen.
I have been spending quite some time celebrating
and discovering the flavors
of my mom's homeland of Thailand,
and today, I'm gonna dig a little deeper than a recipe,
and we're gonna make rice noodles from scratch.
Right? How cool is that?
Not only are we doing that,
but I'm gonna show you a fun street-side condiment
called prik nam som, which is a chili vinegar sauce.
And in addition to all of that,
we're gonna combine it and make the drunken noodle,
kwetiew pad kee mao.
What a fantastic day.
(upbeat music)
If you can make traditional Italian pasta at home,
you definitely can make rice noodles at home as well.
It's surprisingly really, really easy
and doesn't take very many ingredients.
So what I've got here is about one cup
of superfine rice flour that I'm placing
into this mixing bowl.
And with that,
I'm gonna add one third of a cup of tapioca starch.
Then I'm gonna take my half teaspoon
and sprinkle a little bit of salt right on top
and mix it all together
till it's fully incorporated consistently.
Now, I'm gonna take one and a quarter cup of water
and just drizzle it in till it's fully incorporated
and it looks almost like the consistency of coconut milk.
I mean, it looks really watery and loose,
but trust me, guys, that's how it should be.
All right, now that my noodle batter is ready,
it is time to actually make the noodles.
So what I have here are cake tins.
These are about nine- or eight-inch cake tins,
and you can use round or square.
Don't stress it.
However, mine are nonstick, and if you can't find nonstick,
just use your regular tins that you have and get some spray.
It'll be fine.
Now, moving on, I have this ladle,
and I'm gonna take some of my rice noodle batter,
maybe about two and a half or three ounces,
and pour it gently into my tins
until the bottom is thinly coated.
Ooh, look at that.
How fun.
Now that I have a thin layer of rice noodle batter
in the bottom of my pins,
I'm ready to take it to the steamer.
Okay, so to cook these noodles, we're gonna steam them.
And what I have here is my steam basket.
Now, I have a pretty hardcore steam basket,
and if you don't have this steam basket,
do not stress out trying to find it.
Use whatever steaming vessel you have.
My only bit of advice is
don't let the water touch the surface of the tin.
So what I'm gonna do is place my noodles
right into the middle of the steam basket, just like that.
One more row.
And the lid!
Now just let these noodles steam
for about two to three minutes
until they're completely cooked through.
Ooh, I'm excited!
Woo, it's steamy, isn't it?
Oh my goodness.
It worked.
When you see the noodles bubble up like that
and my glasses fog up like this, you know we're ready.
(laughs)
Okay, guys, the noodles are cooked.
Now, what needs to happen is you need to let these cool down
because if they're still hot and you try to work with them,
they're gonna fall apart,
and it's also safer for your hands.
Just the nice gentle peel off one corner
and right off of the tin.
Oh!
Oh my God, you guys, we just made rice noodles.
Look at this.
How cool, right?
Here's a little fun tidbit.
These rice noodles are very versatile.
You can keep them as sheets
and make those beautiful Vietnamese summer rolls.
You could also cut them thin for noodles
for pad thai or noodle soup, like pho.
But for this particular recipe we're gonna do today,
I like a thicker noodle.
So all I'm gonna do now is just take this pizza cutter
and cut nice, thick slices, like so, back and forth.
Oh my goodness. Look at that.
How fun.
You guys, look at that.
It is a fresh rice noodle.
We did it.
Rice noodles. Yay!
Let's talk condiments.
They are almost as equally important as the main dish itself
when it comes eating street food in Thailand.
and there are tons to choose from.
But I love this one the most.
It is called prik nam som.
It's a chili vinegar sauce.
It's bright, acidic, tangy, full of vinegar and spice,
and it really cuts well with the richness of the soy
in the drunken noodle.
So what I have here are some serrano chilies,
and you can also use jalapenos
or whatever pepper you find at the store.
I have some sliced garlic right here.
Generous amount, three to five cloves.
Eh, why not?
Just do it all, right?
Half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar.
Then I have one cup of white distilled vinegar.
All of this into my Mason jar.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
And that's it, guys.
My prik nam som.
It'll keep in the fridge for as long as you want,
but trust me, it's not gonna last very long.
Now that this is done, it's time for the main event.
Let's get started on our kwetiew pad kee mao,
our drunken noodle!
When it comes to Thai street food, there are a couple items
that have made their name around the world, but for me,
my favorite street dish is drunken noodle.
I love the richness. I love the dark soy.
I love the tang of the condiments.
To me, it's a perfect dish.
But to get to that point, we have to have the base sauce.
So what I have here is oyster sauce, and I have this.
It's a seasoning soy, and it is delicious.
Now, I have one tablespoon of fish sauce,
and I have this, black dark soy sauce.
Now, this stuff is pretty special.
It's pretty thick like molasses.
It's dark. It's caramel-y.
It has a nice, rich, dark flavor to it.
And I'm just gonna add about a half a cup of that
into this as well.
So I'm stirring this all together, and that is it, guys.
This is our sauce for our kwetiew pad kee mao.
Now, it's time to cook.
So I have a wok here, but if you don't have a wok,
don't freak out.
Don't go buy one.
Use what you got.
Use a saute pan. Use a cast iron.
Just something that has a surface that distributes heat.
So what I've done here is I have my flame on medium heat
and I have a little bit of neutral oil...
this is vegetable oil...
and I'm gonna coat the bottom of my wok
and let it heat up.
You're probably wondering how I know the oil is ready.
You can smell it,
and also little bubbles start to bubble up in the oil,
and that's right when you know it's good to go.
I'm gonna add about a quarter of an onion
that's been thinly sliced
to about maybe six ounces of chicken.
And today I am using chicken thighs.
Now, the reason why I'm using chicken thighs
is because I like dark meat.
There's a lot more flavor, in my opinion,
and it also doesn't dry out.
Oh man, this is starting to look really good already.
The chicken is halfway done,
and now I'm gonna add some more flavor.
This is just some garlic.
Woo!
Nice and fragrant.
And some Thai chili pepper.
Now, be careful with these.
Not only are they spicy, but when they hit the heat,
they're gonna release an aroma,
and they're gonna get you.
User beware.
Aah!
Now, I'm gonna let the garlic
and the chilies come alive a little bit.
And I want to talk to you about Thai basil.
Thai basil is very licoricey in flavor,
a little anisey, if you will,
and there's really not a true substitute
if you can't find it.
This is what makes kwetiew pad kee mao.
So I have a generous portion of Thai basil
that I'm gonna just hand-rip and place right into the wok.
Chinese broccoli has a very distinct flavor as well.
The stems are a little bitter,
and the tops are a little sweet like pea shoots.
If you can't find Chinese broccoli,
I like to use Tuscan kale.
You could also just use broccoli.
The options are endless.
Wow. There's a lot going on here already, guys.
Check that out.
Oh my goodness.
This house smells insane.
Woo! So much flavor, so much fragrance, so much yum.
All right.
We're at a good place.
I'm gonna add the tops of Chinese broccoli
and some red bell peppers.
(ethereal music)
Now, I'm gonna let this cook down for about a minute,
so everything is nice and soft and married.
Now that the flavors have all become one,
it's time to add my noodles.
Come on now, noodles.
And now it is time to get saucy, guys.
Let's pour about three tablespoons
of this beautiful hot kee mao sauce
right on top of my noods,
and magic is about to happen.
Look at that.
Boom. Bam.
Woo, you guys, that is it.
Check it out, my beautiful drunken noodle.
Oh my goodness, look at how beautiful this is.
I also have here my chili vinegar sauce
and a little bit of fried garlic
that I want to just top right onto the plate.
Sprinkle, sprinkle.
We made kwetiew pad kee mao, drunken noodles,
from beginning to end.
Here is my beautiful and tart chili vinegar sauce
and I'm just gonna drizzle a little right on top.
Salivation nation already.
I haven't even eaten it yet.
Let's do this. Ready?
Oh my goodness.
You guys, there's so much flavor.
And this sauce on top of it, that tartness,
the acidity really cuts the sweet soy as well.
It's so perfect.
This is such a fun dish.
Well, we just had quite the day, didn't we?
We made a rice noodles from scratch,
a delicious tart and bright chili vinegar sauce,
and brought it all together to create this magic right here,
my gorgeous drunken noodle, kwetiew pad kee mao.
And when you make this, not if but when,
please comment below
or tag me and follow @arnoldmyintbna on Instagram.
All right, guys,
I really do want to finish eating this plate,
so I'm gonna say goodbye for now
and I can't wait to see you again with more great recipes.
Take care.
(speaking foreign language)
Bye bye!
- [Man] Oh, yes!