Recipe: Thai Stir-fried Pork with Basil and Chili

MANILA, Philippines — The Filipino dishes closest to Thai stir-fried pork is our Giniling or Picadillo, but these two dishes are not usually cooked spicy when compared to the Thai dish.

In a recent cooking demo, during the "Think Rice, Think Thailand" event organized by the Trade Center in Manila for Thailand's Department of Foreign Trade, the invited chefs showed us how to cook the Thai dish at home.

After the cooking demo, we also sampled the Thai Stir-fried Pork as part of our lunch fare. And despite me not being a fan of spicy cuisine, I found the dish very savory.

Ingredients:

120 grams of ground pork

5 cloves of garlic

4 to 10 chili peppers

1 tbsp. oil

1 handful of basil leaves

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. oyster sauce

1/2 tsp. light soy sauce

Cooking instructions: 

1) Rinse and peel the garlic and chili peppers. Pound them in a mortar & pestle. They don't need to be super fine. The purpose is to bring out the oils and flavors from both.

2) Heat your wok or pan on high heat and add the tablespoon of oil.

3) When the oil is hot,  add the chili and garlic. Stir fry them for about 20 seconds or until they get really fragrant, but don't let them burn or get too dry.

4) Toss in the ground pork,  stir frying continuously. Cook the pork until it is nearly fully cooked. It should take about 2 to 3 minutes.

5) Add the oyster sauce, the light soy sauce, and sugar. Keep stir frying for another 30 seconds.

6) Grab a handful of basil leaves and toss it into the pan. Fold it into the pork mixture, then turn off the heat.

7) Serve it with Thai Hom Mali rice.