And it comes together fast. Weeknight fast. No reason to eat anything less than awesome every day.
Thai beef noodles are street food
Imagine you were in Thailand and you ordered this on the street. The guy making it would have his prep done. You should too. This goes fast. Heat up a wok and go. Cook the beef. After that, you’ll have Thai beef noodles on the table in a couple minutes. Yes, that fast. You should probably only make two servings at a time. Too much stuff in the wok makes steam. Steam is bad. Steam makes soggy noodles. And you don’t want that. You want to fry the noodles. Nicely coated with oil is what you are after. Repeat after me. Fried is not steamed. Fried is not boiled. The trick is to cook all your beef up front. Have it ready to go and the rest comes together in a couple minutes. Literally. Two minutes an order. Street food.
Big heat is the key
Restaurants have high output burners. Seriously high output burners. That street vendor? He does too. That’s how they get that smoky stir fried taste. Regular stoves don’t have that kind of juice. So you need to adapt. Turn your heat up to max. Don’t be scared. Even at max heat you aren’t close to what they are using. Fry your beef in batches. If the heat isn’t high enough the beef with throw some liquid when it cooks. You’ll get grey beef. Boiled. You don’t want that. Remember. Boiled is not fried. If you see it happen you have too much beef in the pan. Or not enough heat. Or both. Don’t panic. Spoon out the liquid. Add a bit more oil. Turn up the heat. Get that beef to brown. Same goes for the rest of the dish. You want that smoky flavour. It’s magic. Keep the heat high. Work fast. If you can taste a bit of smoke in the final dish you’ll know you nailed it. You’ll be spoiled for life. It’s so good.
Noodles matter for Thai beef noodles
As with any Thai noodle dish, the noodles are key. Do not boil your rice noodles. Just don’t do it. Instead, soak them for about 45 minutes in warm water. They will soften just enough. Then toss them in hot oil until they are well coated. Fry them. Do this before you add the sauce. It works. Thai beef noodles. Restaurant flavour. Street food fast. Easy. Delicious. Try it. You’ll be glad you did. It’s perfect weeknight food.
