Prepare the rice noodles: pour boiling water over them and soak for 6 minutes. Then rinse with cold water to stop them from cooking, and drain the excess water.
While the rice noodles are soaking, dice up the spring onions.
Prepare the Pad Thai sauce by mixing the tamarind paste, fish sauce and sugar.
Brown the crushed peanuts in a hot wok . Keep them moving so they don't burn. Remove the peanuts and put aside.
Add the vegetable oil to the wok and bring up to heat again. Check it is hot enough by throwing in a piece of the spring onion. The spring onion should be sizzling.
Add a handful of spring onions to the wok.
Add the crushed garlic (if you want a stronger garlic flavour, add the garlic later, when you add the prawns).
Add the rice noodles and the chopped up chillies
Add 5 tablespoons of the Pad Thai Sauce. And mix together.
Move everything to the side of the wok, and add the egg to the open space. You may want to add a little more oil at this stage.
Once the egg is fried up, mix it into the noodles.
After 4 minutes of stiry-frying, add the prawns. Stirfry for a further 4 minutes, keeping everything moving.
Remove from the heat, and plate up your Pad Thai. Sprinkle the browned, crushed peanuts on top, and add a handful of bean sprouts. (Important: Only use raw bean sprouts if the package they are in says they are "ready to eat". If you re unsure, add them when you add the rice noodles to cook them through)
Squeeze some lime juice over your Pad Thai
Enjoy!