Pork is stir-fried with garlic, fresh hot chilies and holy basil leaves to create a wonderfully spicy delicious Thai dish names pad ka prao moo. It is easy to make.
Wherever in Thailand, in any canteens, food courts, restaurants, etc., diners often ask for khao pad ka prao khai dao, i.e., plain cooked rice topped with pork holy basil and fried egg. Many Thais often insinuated it amusingly as a no-idea dish because when they have no-idea, they will order “khao pad ka prao”. This is just kidding, but in my opinion, pad ka prao is a spicy stir-fried dish that is quite delicious.
I love the character of roughly ground fresh hot chilies and garlic cloves, so I use a mortar and a pestle to pound them, but either minced or chopped fresh chilies and garlic cloves also can be used. Chilies and garlic have different varieties and sizes, so that I would measure their weights, so we do have an understanding.
Let’s try to make it.
Ingredients
- 200 g minced pork (or bite-size slices of pork)
- 10 g garlic cloves
- 10 g fresh hot chilies (more preferably fresh hot red chilies to make the dish look bright)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- ½ tsp dark soy sauce (optional, just to make the dish look dark)
- ½ tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 handful holy basil leaves
Method
- Add garlic cloves and fresh chilies in a mortar and then pound with a pestle until roughly ground.
- Transfer the roughly ground garlic and chilies into a wok (or a deep skillet), add cooking oil and heat a wok over high heat. Stir-fry until fragrance or the garlic look slightly golden yellow (it may take about 1 to 2 minutes).
- Add pork and stir-fry until slightly cooked.
- Season to taste with oyster oil, light soy sauce, fish sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. Then, add water and stir briefly to mix.
- Add holy basil leaves and stir briefly to soften. Turn of the heat.
- Transfer pad ka prao moo onto a serving plate. Ready to serve.
