Pad Thai

This is fast and tasty and only requires one pan so cleanup is easy too.

Get some rice noodles and soak them in hot water - you should do this first because everything else cooks so quickly that they are not going to have time to soak enough before you need them. So I usually put them in the bowl to soak before I even start any of the other prep.

Cut up some chicken and brown it in a wok on high heat. Once it's done, push it to one side and crack an egg or two into the pan (or if you're paranoid like me, crack them into a bowl first to make sure there isn't any shell in there). You need to immediately scramble the egg as it will set quickly. Break it up and mix it in with the chicken. Then remove both from the wok and set them aside.

Now you can turn the heat down a bit and add the following things to the wok: the noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts (finely chopped - I highly recmmend having a magic immersion blender attachment thing to do this for you), lime juice, a teaspoon or so of sugar (raw sugar is nicest, IMO), garlic, cayenne pepper, fish sauce. You can also leave aside some of the bean sprouts and peanuts to use as a garnish, which makes it look fancy and the fresh bean sprouts give a nice crips texture. I didn't do that this time because I couldn't be bothered. But if you're having a dinner party or something, it's nice.

Cook all the stuff in the wok until it's cooked - the main thing you're looking for here is the noodles, since everything else doesn't need that much cooking. I like to test the noodles by eating some.

When everything's done or nearly so, add back in the chicken and egg. Leave them in there long enough for the chicken to be thoroughly cooked and to have absorbed the delicious flavours of the other stuff and then serve. Optionally add your garnish and/or some more lime juice.

You can also make this with prawns and/or tofu in addition to or instead of the chicken if you want.