Thai Basil Pork Mince (Pad Kra Pao Moo)
This Thai Basil Pork Mince, or Pad Kra Pao Moo (Pad Gra Pao Pork), is an easy stir-fry but SO TASTY. It's one of favorite authentic Thai food recipes and I must have eaten this Asian street food dish at least 100s of times over the 20 years my Father lived in Bangkok.
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 638kcal
Equipment
- 1 mortar and pestle To pound the chili and garlic- you can also blend up a bigger portion in the food processor.
- 1 Scissors To cut the chilies
- 1 Wok or Skillet
- 1 heat proof spatula
Ingredients
For the Chili-Garlic Paste
- 5 cloves fresh garlic peeled
- 3 Thai red chilies (or bird's eye chilies): This gives the dish a kick so if you can't take spice, you will need to reduce it to 1 bird eye chili (or even none- smaller chilies are more spicy than large red chilies so you can just use more large chilies.) Omit the seeds so that it won't be too spicy and remember NOT TO TOUCH YOUR EYES AFTER HANDLING CHILIES.
- 1 large red chili cut the small and large chilies into smaller pieces to make pounding them easier. Large chilies are to add color to the dish, whilst the small chilies are to add the heat.
For Stir Frying
- 2 Tablespoons neutral vegetable oil
- 12 oz ground pork (340g)- get a fatter ground pork if you can't so the dish won't be too dry.
- 4 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar if you have palm sugar, perfect! If not, use white sugar as I usually do.
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ Cup water some recipes call for chicken stock, but I find the stir-fried ground pork is flavourful enough even just with water. Divide the water into 2 batches of ¼ Cups.
- 1 Cup basil leaves the authentic Thai ingredient is Holy Basil but it's hard to find outside Thailand- you can also use Thai Basil or Italian Basil. (I've tested all 3 herbs.) This is an approximate amount so don't stress if you have more/ less.
Instructions
- Cut the chilies into smaller pieces (to make pounding easier.) Removet the seeds to make it less spicy- ideally use gloves as the chilies can irritate the skin and DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES. Pound the peeled garlic and chilies into a paste.
- Add 1-2 Tablespoons of oil to a pan or wok over high heat. When the oil is almost shimmering, ad the ground pork- do not stir for about 1 minute as we want to brown it. Stir the pork till cooked and plate. (If using a wok, you can push the pork to the side.)
- Reduce to medium heat then sauté the garlic-chili paste for 20-30 seconds till fragrant. Return the pork to the pan.
- Over high heat, add ¼ Cup water, the fish sauce, sugar, black pepper and toss till well-mixed. If the pork mixture is still too dry, add ¼ Cup more water but be careful not to make it too wet.
- Switch off the heat, stir the basil leaves till they're wilted.
- Serve with rice- to be authentic, serve with a fried egg (1 egg per person.) When frying the egg, you will need more oil to get the crispy brown edges you see in Thaialnd.
Notes
This is a very generous portion for 2 people (because it's so delicious!)- if you're a smaller eater, it can serve 3 (with rice and the fried egg.)
To make the dish look more appetising, you may want to slice up additional chilies and basil leaves to sprinkle over the pork and rice.
Nutrition
Calories: 638kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 50g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 11g | Monounsaturated Fat: 19g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 122mg | Sodium: 1050mg | Potassium: 885mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1507IU | Vitamin C: 135mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 3mg