This is good stir fry
Pad Ka-Prao (ผัดกะเพรา)
★★★★
Chicken, Chicken, Thai
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 10 mins | Servings: Serves: 4
Description:
While Pad Thai or Tom Kha Gai, in my opinion, deserve a somewhat extensive tutorial, there really isn’t much to say about Pad Ka-Prao (RTGS: phat ka-phrao). It’s a dish that doesn’t require many ingredients or demand the kind of skill that takes years to develop. And if this dish could talk, the only thing it would beg of you is that you use the ingredient without which it cannot be what it is: holy basil (Bai Ka-Prao ใบกะเพรา).
Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground pork, beef, or chicken
14 (26g) large cloves of garlic, peeled
14 (16g) bird’s eye chilies (or however many you can tolerate)
2 large shallot (20g), peeled and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons thin/light soy sauce or seasoning sauce (such as Golden Mountain aka "the Green Cap" sauce")
2 tablespoons dark sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 cups holy basil leaves, packed
Directions:
If you have a mortar, pound together the garlic, chilies, and shallot until you get a coarse paste. If no mortar, either chop them all up with a cleaver on a chopping block or pulse them into a coarse paste in a mini-chopper.
In a skillet, heat up the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the paste to it and fry until fragrant.
Add the meat to the skillet and break it up with the spatula into small pieces.
Add the remaining ingredients (except the basil leaves), correcting seasoning as needed. [I don't like sugar in my Pad Ka-Prao; besides, the dark sweet soy sauce provides enough sweetness for me. But if you think you'd like it even sweeter, either add about a teaspoon of palm or brown sugar or double the amount of dark sweet soy sauce (which will also make the end product darker in color). Purists, as mentioned in the post, won't even use anything for salinity other than fish sauce.]
Once the meat is cooked through, check the amount of liquid in the skillet. If it’s too dry, add a little bit of water or sodium-free broth.
Before taking the skillet off the heat, add the basil leaves to the mixture and give it a couple of stirs. We only want to wilt the basil with the residual heat that is still in the pan so as not to mute the fragrance of the fresh holy basil leaves.
Serve over rice. A Thai-style crispy fried egg on top and a tiny bowl of nam-pla prik would be nice.
Pad Ka-Prao (ผัดกะเพรา)
★★★★
Chicken, Chicken, Thai
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 10 mins | Servings: Serves: 4
Description:
While Pad Thai or Tom Kha Gai, in my opinion, deserve a somewhat extensive tutorial, there really isn’t much to say about Pad Ka-Prao (RTGS: phat ka-phrao). It’s a dish that doesn’t require many ingredients or demand the kind of skill that takes years to develop. And if this dish could talk, the only thing it would beg of you is that you use the ingredient without which it cannot be what it is: holy basil (Bai Ka-Prao ใบกะเพรา).
Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground pork, beef, or chicken
14 (26g) large cloves of garlic, peeled
14 (16g) bird’s eye chilies (or however many you can tolerate)
2 large shallot (20g), peeled and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons thin/light soy sauce or seasoning sauce (such as Golden Mountain aka "the Green Cap" sauce")
2 tablespoons dark sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 cups holy basil leaves, packed
Directions:
If you have a mortar, pound together the garlic, chilies, and shallot until you get a coarse paste. If no mortar, either chop them all up with a cleaver on a chopping block or pulse them into a coarse paste in a mini-chopper.
In a skillet, heat up the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the paste to it and fry until fragrant.
Add the meat to the skillet and break it up with the spatula into small pieces.
Add the remaining ingredients (except the basil leaves), correcting seasoning as needed. [I don't like sugar in my Pad Ka-Prao; besides, the dark sweet soy sauce provides enough sweetness for me. But if you think you'd like it even sweeter, either add about a teaspoon of palm or brown sugar or double the amount of dark sweet soy sauce (which will also make the end product darker in color). Purists, as mentioned in the post, won't even use anything for salinity other than fish sauce.]
Once the meat is cooked through, check the amount of liquid in the skillet. If it’s too dry, add a little bit of water or sodium-free broth.
Before taking the skillet off the heat, add the basil leaves to the mixture and give it a couple of stirs. We only want to wilt the basil with the residual heat that is still in the pan so as not to mute the fragrance of the fresh holy basil leaves.
Serve over rice. A Thai-style crispy fried egg on top and a tiny bowl of nam-pla prik would be nice.
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