I was leafing through my saved recipes in instagram looking for inspiration, looking for something easy but full of flavour and then I came across the amazing @vanjavanderleeden ’s post for Pad Krapao. Hmmmmm, love that stuff: spicy, sweet, savoury with aniseedy Thai basil and above all super quick to make!
The original recipe doesn’t add any vegetables but I always like to add a few for extra texture, flavour and vitamins. I added green beans and a red pepper.
You can pretty much use and ground meat you prefer: chicken, pork or even vegan mince. I decided on pork this time, high quality organic pork of course.
Recipe inspired by @vanjavanderleeden and @thewoksoflife
Pad Krapao (Thai Basil Stir Fry)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 Thai bird's eye chili's, thinly sliced (deseed if you like it less spicy)
- 3 small shallots (thinly sliced)
- 3-4 garlic sloves (sliced)
- 300 - 400 g mince of choice (pork, chicken or vegan)
- 150 g green beans, chopped into bitesize pieces
- 1/2 red pepper, sliced into strips
- The sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 stock cube (chicken or vegetable)
- 1 pound ground pork (450g)
- ▢1 teaspoon sugar
- ▢1 tablespoon fish sauce
- ▢1 tablespoon thin/light soy sauce
- ▢2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- ▢2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- ▢⅓ cup low sodium chicken broth or water
- ▢holy basil leaves (about 1 1/2 cups packed)
- To serve
- Steamed white rice (1/2 cup rice per person)
- A squeeze of lime (optional)
Instructions
Cook the rice as per the packaging. I boil the rice for 8 minutes in ample salted water, then drain and let steam in the pan with the lid in for at least another 8 minutes. In this time you can prepare and cook the rest of the dish.
Prep all your ingredients so you can move fast when stir frying: slice all the vegetables and mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the shallots and garlic on high heat while you keep stirring for ± 2 minutes until fragrant and starting to caramelize. Add the chilis and stir fry for 1 minute.
Add the mince and stir fry until just cooked through, ± 3 minutes. Pour the mince mix into a bowl, leaving a little oil in the pan, and set aside.
Stir fry the green beans and the red peppers on high heat until starting to char, ± 2-3 minutes. The beans will be a little undercooked still.
Add back the mince mix and pour in the sauce, stir fry it all on high heat until the moisture has evaporated a bit and everything is cooked through, ± 2 minutes.
Add the Thai basil and stir through until wilted.
Serve with the steamed rice and a squeeze of lime juice. Enjoy!
