Stir-fried Pork with Basil
| Yield | |
|---|---|
| Source | |
| Prep time | 15 minutes |
| Recipe Tags | Main Dish |
Description
One of my favorite Thai dishes, and definitely the easiest to make. It's also very quick to make, provided you have a source for the basil and peppers. In restaurants this is usually called Pad Ga-Prao*, or some more or less phonetic version of that.
Ingredients
| 8 | oz | ground pork (or chicken, beef, turkey, or tofu) |
| 4 | Garlic (large cloves) | |
| 6 | thai chilis (kee noo - the small, hot ones, more or fewer to taste) | |
| 2 | T | fish sauce |
| 1 | t | black soy sauce (more or less to taste, mostly for color) |
| 1⁄2 | t | sugar |
| 3 | T | Water (3-5 T, that is) |
| basil (two large handsful, see notes) | ||
| 2 | eggs (optional) |
Instructions
Prepare everything first! This is a stir-fry, so there's no time to chop and measure once you've started cooking.
- Smash the garlic and chilis in a mortar and pestle, or mince finely. Either works just fine.
- Combine fish sauce, black soy, sugar, and 3 Tbs of water in a small dish. Stir to dissolve the sugar. If your faucet isn't reachable from the stove, have another small dish with extra water and a tablespoon on the stove.
- Remove basil leaves and flowers from the main stems and place in a small dish.
- Add enough oil to coat the bottom of a pan that can withstand high heat (a wok is fine, but so is a frying pan). Heat over medium-high heat until oil shimmers.
- Throw in the garlic and chils and stir to keep the garlic from burning. Don't stick your head over the pan and smell or you'll sneeze like crazy.
- Once the garlic just starts to pick up some color (30 seconds or so at this heat), add in the ground pork. Stir and toss to break up the meat and combine it with the garlic/peppers.
- When the pork is mostly cooked, pour in the sauce. The dish should be liquidy, so if the pan looks dry, add a few more tablespoons of water.
- Stir-fry a minute or so more until the pork is thoroughly cooked, then turn off the heat and throw in the basil. Stir until the basil is wilted and fragrant.
- Turn the meat out into a dish. If using eggs, wipe the pan, and add a few Tbs oil back to the pan. Return it to medium high heat. When the oil shimmers, crack two eggs into the hot oil and fry to your desired degree of doneness.
- Serve over rice, with an optional fried egg on top.
Notes
- *So, ga-prao is holy basil, which is very hard to find in the US. I've had what menus claimed was holy basil, only to be completely surprised by how it tasted when I actually ate it in Thailand. Although most recipes online claim that you really can't substitute thai sweet basil for holy basil in this recipe (and that if you do, the dish really ought to be called pad bai horapa), I generally do, because that's what I can find in the Asian markets here. If you can find holy basil, though, use that.
- Speaking of basil, use a lot of it in this dish. The original recipe called for equal amounts of pork and basil by volume, but that seems like a weird way of measuring both of those things. However, basil is essentially the vegetable in this dish, and a large part of the flavor, so don't stint on it. A handful really means a handful.
- If you can't find the little Thai chilies, use whatever hot pepper floats your boat. Smaller hot peppers, like serranos, are probably better than meaty jalapenos, just in terms of their bulk.
- If you use the eggs, the hotter you can get the oil to fry them in, the better. The white gets these delicious crunchy edges, but the yolks stay runny. If you like that sort of thing, that is.
- Slivers of onions are also pretty good in this dish (no idea on authenticity, but I was served it that way in Phuket). Add them with the garlic and chilies.
