15 Minute Thai Basil Pork Stir Fry
A seriously quick and easy recipe for those kind of days
What do you cook when you really don’t have the energy to cook? You know those days when it’s the last thing you feel like doing? You will all know I’m sure that I used to work as a private chef and at the end of a long day when I’d been on my feet all day, cooking, I really would just find it hard to muster the energy to cook anything at all. The temptation is to order something, that’s the easy option but it soon becomes the expensive option too.
Isn’t that a funny thing. The people who cook for a living, quite often (not always of course) eat the worst when they are home. Restaurant chefs work such long, gruelling hours, it’s very often microwave meals and take aways at the end of a shift.
So because of this I created a bit of a repertoire of really quick and easy recipes that truly come together in less than 20 minutes. They’re quick and faff free and really low effort. And this is one such recipe. It’s my version of the famous pad krapow from Thailand and it’s something you can make when cooking feels like the last thing you want to do.
I’ve made this as often with turkey mince as I have done with pork mince and it works equally well chicken mince too. Or even diced chicken breast or thigh. You will need to cook it for a few minutes longer but the same principles will apply. Use what you like the most or what you have to hand.
If you’re cooking for children, mine love this but I just leave out the chilli which is easy to do.
I love this with jasmine rice but it’s also great served in gem lettuce cups for a light supper. Or you can add a few vermicelli noodles to this as well to bulk it out a little.
Now I know what you’re thinking, 15 minutes Margie? People always say that and it ends up taking forever. But no, I mean it, you can do this and it’s going to take you 15 minutes and really in this we are being slowed down by the rice. Use a pouch of rice and this is a less than 10 minute jobbie.
Here is the plan:
Minute 1: You’re going to move quickly to get your rice on. Simply rinse the rice, pop it in a pan and add the water. Get it on to cook and place the lid on. Phew..Now you can slow down a little as have plenty of time
Minute 2: Crush the garlic, chop the chillies and green beans. It’s always quicker to do all the chopping in one go.
Minute 4: Get a large pan or wok on to heat, add a little oil and add the mince. Leave it to cook for a minute and then break it up with a wooden spoon. Keep the heat high and cook for another 3-4 minutes. You want it to get brown and caramelised if you can.
Minute 5: While the mince is cooking, make your sauce. This is very quick to do, just mix it all together, stir and you’re done. You’ve got time here so no need to rush.
Minute 7: Add the garlic, chilli and beans to the mince and cook for another minute, stirring well.
Minute 8: Pour in the sauce and let it bubble for another couple of minutes. See how easy is this? You’re basically done.
Minute 10: Fry your eggs in a little chilli oil, peanut rayu or just olive oil. I like to fry mine until they are crispy on the bottom but the yolk is still runny. (If you use the rice pouches - you would be tucking in right now and it took less than 10 minutes!)
Minute 12: Turn the heat off for the rice and leave the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes.
Minute 12-15: Now really just waiting for the rice. See, we really have time to spare here. Pour yourself a drink. Fluff the rice with a fork and plate up!
The full recipe is below for paid subscribers (along with a handy PDF version). You also get access to helpful notes on the recipe in case you want to make it vegetarian friendly, or you’re feeding more people and want to scale up easily. Perhaps you’re feeding the whole family? It’s all covered in the Notes.
I really want this newsletter to be your go-to resource when you don’t know what to cook for supper so I put a lot of energy into the Notes section to make it as helpful as possible.
Lamb chops with creamy beans and salsa verde
Steak with creamy mushroom orzo
Now I normally always write recipes for 2 people with the aim of making them easy to scale up, but here’s the thing with today’s recipe…you normally get packets of mince whether it’s pork, chicken or turkey in about 450g -500g packets. Which is enough for 4 people. So here’s the thing, even if you’re two people I would cook this amount because a small amount of leftover raw mince is just annoying. So cook the whole lot and tomorrow enjoy the leftovers in lettuce cups with a little avocado for a v delicious lunch. Or you can freeze it. Details below. I will give you amounts for cooking the rice for 2 and also for scaling up so it’s easy to adjust.
