Authentic Thai Basil Minced Pork Recipe (Pad Kra Pao Moo Saap)
Minced pork stir-fried with fresh garlic and chilli in a sweet and salty sauce, perfumed with Thai holy basil.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 2 fresh birdseye chillies
- 250 g minced pork for alternative meats, see
Ingredient Tips - 40 g Holy basil or Thai basil
Sauce:
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
Ingredient Preparation
- Wash and pick the leaves from all of the basil.
- Lightly bash the garlic and chilli in a pestle and mortar into a very chunky paste (see below).
Stir-frying
- Add a tablespoon of neutral cooking oil to a non-stick pan and place on a maximum heat* (if you have a wok and powerful gas burner, see the below note on preferred cooking equipment).
- When the pan is as hot as possible, add the garlic/chilli paste and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Crumble in the minced pork and fry until it has just turned opaque, breaking it up with a spoon as you go.
- Add the sauce ingredients and fry for 30 seconds more. Taste and adjust to your liking (you want a pleasant balance of saltiness and sweetness).
- Add the basil and stir for a final 10 seconds. Immediately take off the heat (you don’t want to overcook the basil once it is wilted as it will lose its punch).
- Serve straight away with plain white rice, prik nam pla** and a fried egg.
Notes
*These instructions assume that you do not have a super-thin wok and screaming hot burner, as would be used in Thailand. If you do, then the steps are the same but cooking times will be much shorter (see the article for more details on the difference between the two methods).
** To make prik nam pla (thoroughly recommended) mix fish sauce and lime juice in a roughly 2:1 ratio. Add sugar to taste. Then add plenty of finely sliced birdseye chillies (and a touch of minced garlic, if liked).