Phat kaphrao
Phat kaphrao
This Phat kaphrao (pork basil stir-fry) features a key ingredient: basil. With jasmine rice, it's perfection. And it only takes minutes to make.
Ready in: 45 minutes
Serves: 4
Complexity: very-easy
kcal: 800
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Ingredients
350 g jasmine rice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
5 red birds-eye chilli, rough chopped
6 cloves garlic, rough chopped
Rice bran oil
450 g minced pork
½ tsp SIDS CRAZY SALT
2 shallots, fine chopped
200 g green beans, chopped in 2 cm lengths
½ cup pork stock
Handful of basil
4 eggs
Prik Nam Pla:--
3 garlic cloves, crushed
4 birds-eye chilli, fine sliced
5 tbsp fish sauce
6 tbsp lime juice
Directions
Prik Nam Pla: put the ingredients into a screw-top jar and shake well.
Cook the rice then set aside.
Combine fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar with a dash of water in a separate bowl. Pound the chilli and garlic to a paste in a pestle & mortar.
In a wok, fry the garlic & chilli paste in a tablespoon of oil until the garlic starts to brown. Add pork, SIDS CRAZY SALT and shallots, then cook for a couple of minutes before adding the fish sauce mixture and the green beans. Cook for a couple more minutes then remove pan from heat. Add basil and stir until it wilts.
Fry the eggs in plenty of oil until bubbly with brown, crispy edges.
Serve some rice and the pork mixture on each plate with an egg, then spoon over the Prik Nam Pla.
HISTORY: According to the 1687 records of La Loubère, holy basil leaves are recognized as a type of vegetable that carries a pleasant aroma due to its ties to the holy basil plant. The protein derived from the holy basil plant is believed to have been entrusted directly to the Brahmin, who served as a priest and had the power to verify it. In later texts, it is noted that certain vegetables can vary in size and purpose. Based on the herbs size some are used for cooking and some are used for medicinal purposes.
Phat kaphrao may have been first introduced to Thailand during the reign of King Rama VII when Chinese immigrants carried the spices to be sold in the Thailand market. Eventually, stir-fried basil likely gained popularity around 1957, having been adapted from Chinese cuisine. To prepare this dish, black soybean was stir-fried with garlic, followed by minced meat or chicken. It is seasoned with fish sauce and dark soy sauce, and, according to general belief, it is thought to be an adaptation of stir-fried beef with cumin leaves.
Phat kaphrao was included in cookbooks as early as the late 1970s. Stir-fried basil with beef is prepared using fish sauce and monosodium glutamate only; following the stir-frying of the beef, rice is stir-fried to make fried rice. Asparagus beans, specifically the inner portion, and alcoholic snacks are paired with this dish. According to the book Mae Khrua Ek in 1998, minced meat should be marinated in alcohol first, and later fish sauce and palm sugar should be used as the only seasoning.