Pad Ka Prow - 13 May 2011

Apologies fellas, it's been a while since the last update, been busy with work and stuffs. Anyway, this time, it's a classic Thai dish - Pad Ka Prow - or Stir-fried Pork with Thai Sweet Basil. Simple simple dish to make.

Had my Bangkok trip this week and brought home some ingredients back. The most important in this dish is of course the basil itself. Definitely different to the local ones here, the Thai sweet basil has larger leaves and the aroma is stronger and more pungent. Then, the fish sauce too, has got to be the Thai fish sauce. The Chinese and the local fish sauce is less salty and more fishy :P.

The ingredients;
10 cloves of garlic (Yes, you do need heaps of these)
3 bird-eye chilly (Depend on how spicy you want it to be, I like mine rather mild)
300 gr mince pork (You can use chicken if pork's not halal for you)
A handful Thai sweet basil (Tried to use the local once, not as good as the Thai's)
2 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (Please use only Thai fish sauce - I use the Squid Brand Thai Fish Sauce)
1 tablespoon Sweet Soy Sauce (READ: Kecap Manis)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (Stir-fry purpose)

No salt and pepper needed, trust me. First the fish sauce is already salty, then you wouldn't want the pepper smell and taste to overcome the basil. Then I like to use the sweet soy sauce because it adds a mild sweet taste to the whole dish as well as some colour. You can always use sugar, but please do use the sweet soy sauce if available.

Let's get cooking;
1. Mince both garlic and chilly finely and stir-fry until the garlic releases its aroma.
2. Once they are done, put in the pork and starts breaking up the meat. Sometimes, minced meat would just crumbed together to form meatballs. We don't want this.
3. Dump in the wet ingredients and continue until the meat is done.
4. I like my basil leaves not thoroughly cooked, so I put them just 10 seconds before the whole dish is done.
5. Plate, garnish and serve with warm jasmine rice.