Pad Thai

My friend Sue, who owns a Thai restaurant, taught me to make this special dish. I have put my own spin on it, including leaving out the tofu. She would probably be horrified, but I’m not going to go through the hassle of cutting it into slices and deep frying it when I know I’m going to take it out before I eat the Pad Thai anyway.
Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1 pound lean beef, thinly sliced
• Two eggs
• One medium yellow or white onion (with one half thinly sliced and one half chopped)
• 2 cups cooked linguine pasta (I use Dreamfields low carb)
• 3 tablespoons Splenda
• 2/3 cup oyster sauce
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup peanuts, chopped or pounded
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts, rinsed
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, sliced thinly for garnish

Directions:

You’ll need a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the skillet has heated up, add your cooking oil. Put the chopped onion and sliced beef into the hot skillet with the oil, stir and cook about three minutes.

Move the beef and onion mixture to one side of the skillet, and add the two eggs. Quickly stir the eggs on the empty side of the skillet, about one minute, to scramble. Mix together the beef, onion, and eggs. Add your 2 cups of cooked pasta. In the picture above, I used low-carb spaghetti because I didn’t have any linguine on hand. I have also used cooked lasagna noodles that I’ve cut into strips. It all works.

Stir together the noodles, onion, and and beef. Add 3 tablespoons Splenda, 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar, 2/3 cup oyster sauce and 1/3 cup water to the pan, mixing as you add them. Stir about one minute. Add 1/2 cup thinly sliced red pepper, and stir fry for one more minute.

Place the mixture on the serving plate or into a bowl. Sprinkle with any combination of the following: fresh bean sprouts, green onions, sliced at a diagonal, chopped peanuts, carrot curls, or chunks of fresh limes.

This recipe can be made with chicken, pork, shrimp, or tofu, or any combination thereof. If you really want the tofu in it, heat up 2 cups of cooking oil in a large sauce pan and add 4 or 5 finger-sized slices of Tofu at a time. Fry until lightly brown. Remove to a paper towel covered plate to drain.

Sue also adds 2 tablespoons of fish sauce at the very end of cooking the Pad Thai. I leave it out because I think it just makes it too salty and doesn’t enhance the flavor to a measurable degree. I am a bad pupil!