Pad Kra Pao

I'm a huge fan of @migrationology (watch his channel on YouTube, it's a food lovers wet dream) and often I see him eat this Thai dish, called Pad Kra Pao. I never had it and I really wanted to try, so I bought the holy basil at our local Asian supermarket and here it is!

It's pretty easy to be honest and the unique flavour of the basil really stands out.

Don't try to make this with regular basil (the Italian kind) though. The flavour is completely different. I hope I'm getting close to the original.

Ingredients:

• 500 gram ground pork • 2 shallots • 7 garlic cloves • 3 Thai chilies • 2 tsp sugar • 1 tbsp fish sauce • 1 tbsp light soy sauce • 2 tsp dark soy sauce • 2 tsp oyster sauce • 75 ml chicken stock • 2 cups holy basil • 250 gram long beans or green beans •

1. Start with prepping your ingredients. Slice the shallots, chop the garlic and slice the chilies. Chop your beans in small pieces and mix the wet ingredients and the sugar.

2. Heat up 3 tablespoons of oil and saute the shallots, chili and garlic until the edges are golden. You can pre-cook the beans or add them in the beginning, so they cook while stir-frying.

3. Add the ground pork and stir fry on high heat. As soon as the meat is cooked and starts to get nice and golden as well, add the wet ingredients. Cook on high heat so the sauce will evaporate and will thicken. If you pre-cooked the beans, this is the time to add them to the minced meat.

4. When the sauce has the right consistency, add the holy basil and stir well for another few minutes, until the basil renders down and gets soft.

The beans are optional, but I really like these crunchy veggies in the dish. Serve with white rice. If you don't like spicy that much, cut down the chilies.

Enjoy!