Pad kra pao = holy basil stir fry'. It's a stir fry of meat (typically ground meat), holy basil, and loads of chilies. It’s served on rice, and usually with a fried egg on top. The more modern rendition of pad kra pao (the one your local Thai restaurant probably makes) contains veggies like green beans and onions; along with a more complex seasoning that might include oyster sauce, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce. This recipe, however, is an old-school, traditional style that is much simpler. Many Thais call this the original pad gaprao!
The cunning plan:
- Mash the garlic and chillies in the pestle
- Chop up the ginger, shallots and spring onions (eastern squares not western cylinders of course)
- Courgettes or broccoli if wanted
- Slice the fatty pork belly into wok-sized rectangles (traditionally it's ground pork, but hey...)
- Have a bit of chicken stock handy, but may not need it...
- Prik nam pla (optional) - a spicy fish sauce condiment classically served with Pad kra pao
- Combine chopped chilies and fish sauce in a small bowl, maybe with thinly sliced garlic and/or shallots
- Add as many chilies as you like
- Thai chilis, or another spicy chili such as serrano. This is your source of heat, and for a truly authentic pad kra pao, you want to add as many as you can handle!
- Mild red chilis. We want to have a lot of chili flavor here, but not so much as to hurt ourselves, so we can add some milder ones. Anything red and mild will work such as red anaheim, long red pepper, mini bell pepper or even red bell pepper if all else fails.
- Add a squeeze of lime for some aciditym - say 1 part lime juice to 3 parts fish sauce
- Last thing so super fresh - big bunch of basil leaves - holy basil best, then sweet basil, lastly Thai basil
Good to go! Fire up the wok (avocado oil seem to work)
- Deep fry eggs, splashing oil over them while browning edges. Leave sitting while you wok the rest...
- Decant the excess oil and in order:
- Stir fry the pork until starting to brown
- Chilli and garlic
- Onions and ginger
- Fish sauce, stock if getting dry, and (maybe - traditionally not) a dash of soy. Traditionally, fish sauce is your only seasoning in traditional pad kra pao, so it’s important to use a good one. Read this post on how to choose a good fish sauce.
- Courgettes or broccoli - cover to steam
- Lid off and zap to dry out a tad
- Spring onions
Stop cooking and when cooled a tad stir in the fresh basil leaves until wilted. Add pepper as part of the spice-up
Serve in warmed bowls with egg(s) on top, yum!
