I'm a cook, not a chef.: Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a dish that I have loved for years but have always felt too daunted to actually undertake... until now. Not knowing the first thing of how to make it, I searched for recipes on the internet and tried to actually research how to make it before doing it. So, this recipe is a conglomeration of different recipes from The Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything, The Food Network's website and Epicurious.com

Before you make the Pad Thai, you'll need to make Tamarind Water.

Step 1: Ingredients

2 Whole tamarind pods
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of sugar

Step 2: Shell the Tamarind

Peel the shell from the Tamarind, you don't want that in the mix.

Step 3: Boil it and let it sit

In a pot, put 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring it to a boil, then kill the heat and drop your peeled Tamarind pods in to the water. Let it rest for about 20 or 30 minutes or until the Tamarind is cool enough to handle without burning yourself.

Step 4: De-seed the Tamarind

Mulch all of the Tamarind paste off of the pods and throw away the shell and seeds.

Now that we have some Tamarind Water, let's make some Pad Thai!

Step 1: Ingredients

Rice Noodles
Mung Bean Sprouts
Chile/Pablano
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Lime
1 Room Temperature Egg
1/3 cup of Nam Pla
Tamarind Water
0.5 cup of crushed peanuts
1 Pinch of Cilantro

Step 2: Cut the Chicken

Chop the chicken in to relatively small pieces.

Step 3: Cook the Noodles

Bring a pot of water to a boil, then turn the heat off and drop the noodles in. Cover it and let it sit for 5 to 8 minutes, then drain them. I let them sit for 8 minutes and that overcooked them a bit, so... you probably don't want to let them sit that long before draining them.

Step 4: Egg and Chicken

Heat a Wok on Medium-High to High. Crack an egg and drop it in and before it cooks, through (~30 seconds?) toss in your chicken. Stir it around and you'll notice your Wok loses heat really, really quickly.

Step 5: Transfer the chicken, keep the juices.

Heat a frying pan on Medium and transfer the chicken to the frying pan but keep the juices in the wok and transfer any new juices to the wok. Swirl the juices around and boil them off a bit, then:

Step 6: Add the Noodles

Flop the noodles in the pan, then use your spoon to "fold" the noodles over and over and over. Basically, stick your spoon under one side of the noodles and lift, then flop it over and shove the other side back under. This should rotate the giant mass of noodles so that they all get some time with the hot part of the wok. Do this for ~3 minutes then:

Step 7: Add the Bean Sprouts

Toss the bean sprouts on top of the noodles and fold them in to the mix. Once they're somewhat dispersed throughout, suddenly remember you have chicken cooking in the pan right next to you and give it a good stirring and kill the heat on it so it doesn't scorch.

Step 8: Add the liquids