Home ec practical: Pad thai

On Friday, in Home Ec, we made Pad Thai. Our team worked well together and our end product was good. Like always, we gave each person tasks to complete to make our practical efficient and well done.

We are learning: About New Zealand food culture and its evolution.

How does this show my learning: We created a dish which our culture has adopted as a favourite dish.

I am wondering: How the combination of flavours in Pad Thai were first discovered.

The noodles: Rice noodles were used in this dish. They were cooked just as the chicken was finished cooking through. We had to be careful not to over cook them or they would become mushy. The ideal noodle was cooked but still had a chewy texture.

Chicken: First the chicken was cut into strips. I didn't cut the chicken thin enough and it took longer to cook. Once it was cut, the chicken was marinated for a few minutes in a cornflour and soy sauce mixture. When cooking, the chicken was cooked at a high heat, intentionally drying it out.

Sauce: there were many elements in the sauce which needed to be measured correctly to ensure a balanced flavour. Our sauce turned out good.

Once the chicken was cooked, the noodles were added and stir-fried for a few minutes. The sauce was then added and cooked until thickened. 

Finally, spring onion and chopped peanuts were sprinkled on top.

Reflection: over all, the dish turned out pretty good. The Pad Thai had a weird, strong aftertaste but was still alright. We worked well as a team and worked through the mistakes.

Nutrition:

The Pad Thai had one good serving of carbohydrate from the noodles.

One serving of meat from the chicken.

A small amount of fat and sugar from the sauce.

The downside was, there was no vegetables.

This would be a good treat meal but not an everyday thing, due to the lack of vegetables.