THAILAND

spicy pork stir-fry


it seems kind of wrong to have a thai recipe without fish sauce, but it does have that mix of heat and sweetness from the basil which to me is also distinctively thai (and i suppose you could add fish sauce to the finished product if you liked). obviously, the thai basil is best, but it's often hard to come across, so i find the usual stuff works perfectly well. as with all stir-fries, make sure you have everything chopped up and ready to go - i find this takes only about 15 minutes from start to finish.




serves 3 or 4

300 - 400g pork tenderloin, thinly sliced (don't use other cuts of pork as they'll be too tough)
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow or green pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or 1 tsp. bottled
2 - 4 fresh red chilies, chopped (my supermarket rarely has fresh chilies, so i generally go with a liberal sprinkling of red pepper flakes instead)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
15 - 20 fresh basil leaves

make sure your wok is very hot (the oil in it should be just about smoking), then add your garlic and chilies or red pepper flakes and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

add the pork and stir-fry for a few more minutes until the pork has lost its pinkness.

add soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar (and a little water if it looks too thick for you). stir-fry another two minutes.

add diced peppers and basil leaves and stir-fry two minutes more, until the pepper have just started to soften.

garnish with extra basil leaves if you're feeling fancy.





*this can be served atop rice noodles to make it more substantial. in that case you may wish to add 1/2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp. cold water, plus another couple of tablespoons of water to make more sauce