The exciting aroma of Thai basil, the convenience of ground pork and string beans, and the savoury touch of fish sauce come together in this Thai stir fry to push the limits of home-cooked “fast food” to bring for lunch to work.

Time: 2/5
A bunch of portions plus cleanup in an hour.

Effort: 3/5
Mostly knife work followed by a romp in the wok

When the going gets tough, stop for lunch

It’s no secret that I love Thai food. It’s hard not to, with all these big bold flavours stacked in dramatic contrast: sweet paired with spicy, plenty of citrus and acidity, the richness and nuttiness of coconut cream, the heady aromas of spices, and often an intense savouriness powered by the judicious application of fish sauce. I’ve been to Thailand before and thoroughly enjoyed every meal there, although by a twist of fate my greatest culinary takeaway from that trip happened to be how to make bolognese sauce from an Italian couple.

My ears perked up when my dear mother acquired a pot of Thai basil, and offered me a few sprigs of it. Thai Basil happens to be the main flavour in one of my favourite Thai dishes, Pad Krapao Moo. Moo is the sound that I expect cows to make, but it means pork in the Thai language – the recipe is one of Thai basil stir fried with string beans and ground pork, then coated in a fish sauce-based sauce. Although there’s ground pork in it, you could easily adjust the proportions and make it an almost vegetarian meal where the meat is more like a seasoning than a major component. It’s a concept very similar to a Cantonese recipe of stir fried ground pork, string beans and preserved mustard greens, which also earns this dish a place in my Carnivore Rehab series, where I help picky eaters include more vegetables into their diet.

Of course, nothing stops you from serving it more conventionally, such as with rice and an egg, next to a nice Tom Yum Kung. But, I happened to have a lot of 粽 (Joong / zongzi in Cantonese/Mandarin) hanging around in my freezer. These are savoury dumplings made with glutinous rice, and are traditionally eaten during the annual Dragon Boat festival to commemorate the minister of an ancient Chinese state who drowned himself in a river to protest some unwise policies of the king – when do you ever get politicians like that nowadays?

Anyway, my extended family on my mother’s side gets together during that time of year and churns out hundreds of these every year following my grandmother’s recipe. They’re insanely delicious and super filling, and I hoard my share in the freezer as a reserve supply for gastronomic emergencies. It was super late by the time I was back this night however, and I didn’t want to have to wait on the rice cooker leisurely timer to put dinner on the table. Glutinous rice is still rice, so I have remained true to my name. Perhaps I will feature zongzi here someday. (June 2023 update: I finally did!)

Perhaps, deep down, I knew I needed a reminder of the family love the Joong embody as a midday pick-me-up for the hellish workweek ahead: I need to be at one location in the morning where work doesn’t wrap up until 1:30, then I have 30 minute’s travel to another location where I have to be by 1:15. Which makes the effective length of my lunch break … negative forty-five minutes. I could say that I did not choose the thug life, but that would be a lie.

Alas, one makes do. A bit of knife work makes the string beans more spoon-friendly, so everything can go down the hatch quickly. Microwave, devour, wash the box. Lunch completed, with negative fifty-five minutes to spare.

Looking for other ways to use up any extra Thai basil? Try this aromatic Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken stew with a sticky caramel sauce.

Dramatis Personae

String beans – 100-300g pax

I’ve sung my praise of string beans before. To recap, it’s one of the vegetables with a high effort-to-reward ratio. All you need to do is wash a big bunch of them and cut to desired length, and you got both fiber and protein. My desired length this time was very short, which did mean more cutting to do, but the objective this week was to spend time on the cutting board now to save time in the office pantry later.

Ground pork – 50-200g pax

Use it as a protein source, or sparingly as a source of meaty flavour. Whether fresh or frozen, there isn’t much preparation to be done besides making sure it is ready to be dumped into the pan when it comes time to cook.

Thai basil – the more the merrier, within reason

Thai basil is regular basil’s funky cousin. It rocks a high fade when regular basil gets the same old bowl cut. Thai basil is rocking in the mosh pit when regular basil is getting ready for bed early. Thai basil is the Mac to regular basil’s PC. You get the idea. It’s hard to describe how it tastes, but I’d say sweet-ish with a strong note of anise.

Like most fresh herbs, wait until the very end before adding it and let it wilt in the residual heat. Otherwise, a lot of the aroma gets cooked away and it’s much less fun that way.

Aromatics

A clove or two of garlic per portion, minced to ensure maximal flavour extraction. The short cooking time keeps the garlic relatively fresh and pungent, which I like.

Spice things up to your liking. It’s easier for me to use dried chilli powder because it’s shelf stable and I don’t cook that often (I just make a lot of food whenever I do). Fresh chillis would definitely add a lot, with their fruitiness in addition to the heat.

I don’t think I’ve ever had ginger or shallots with Pad krapao moo, but maybe someone can enlighten me.

Sauce – Enough to coat things, but not enough to pool at the bottom of the pan

Fish sauce is pretty distinctive in its taste and aroma, and consequently hard to replace in Thai cuisine. Soy sauce could also serve to add salinity and umami, but it wouldn’t be the same.

Sneaking in some acidity is a great way to make a savoury dish even more mouth-watering. Fresh lime or lemon juice is wonderful, but oftentimes bottled juice or rice vinegar is more handy.

I do like to sweeten the sauce with a bit of sugar to round things out. A tiny bit sprinkled right into the pan should do just fine. It doesn’t have to taste noticeably sweet, but once you’ve tasted the difference you will miss it’s absence.

Executive summary

1. Wash and dice up the string beans.
2. Brown ground pork in the pan on high heat. Prepare garlic and wash Thai basil while pork is cooking.
3. Reserve the pork. Keep heat on high. Dump string beans into pan and stir until slightly softened.
4. Make a well in the beans and briefly stir fry garlic.
5. Return the pork. Add sauce, stir to combine.
6. Just before serving, stir in Thai basil with the heat off.

Play by Play

Ground pork is a boon for the home cook in a hurry. I got some pretty lean pork because I’m watching my calories but fattier meat would probably taste better, especially if you’re only using a little bit.

The consequences of trying to cook a lot of lean pork in not a lot of oil is uneven browning. But one must not forget that the primary objective is to feed oneself, and one cannot let perfect get in the way of good enough.

Because the string beans have been cut into such small pieces, they don’t take much time to cook at all especially if you like them crunch, and if they will get reheated in the microwave. They do shrink a bit as they cook, so that needs to be accounted for when cutting.

Sauced and combined. I’m not proud of this meat to vegetable ratio – there was a slight misjudgement on my part when buying the string beans. I’d much rather there be more bean than pork, but this is what I got so this is what I will work with.

If an army marches on its stomach, then I’m ready for war.

Om nom nom!

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