Prawn pad Thai

1 An hour before you plan to serve your pad Thai, place rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with room temperature water to soften (this is to prevent them being too soft and breaking apart on cooking).

2 To make your sauce, in a small saucepan heat 1 teaspoon of the canola oil over medium and cook shallots and garlic for 3 to 4 minutes until tender. Add palm sugar and cook until it melts and just starts to darken. Quickly stir through tamarind paste and 4 tablespoons water. Add fish sauce and stir well. Remove from heat.

3 In a wok or large nonstick frypan, heat a little more canola oil over medium high and stir-fry prawns for 2-3 minutes until cooked, Remove and set aside.

4 In the same wok or pan add remaining oil and tofu and cook until starting to go golden. Add the drained noodles, sauce and a little water and toss to coat noodles evenly. Add snow peas, then push noodles to one side of the wok and crack in eggs. Break yolks with a spoon. Cook until starting to set, then move noodles back onto the eggs. When eggs are cooked, stir noodles well to mix egg evenly throughout. Add cooked prawns and heat through.

5 Remove from heat and stir through mung bean and peanuts. Stir through lime juice.

6 To serve, divide noodle among four bowls, top with chilli, if using, and reserved mung beans, spring onions, peanuts and lime wedges.