didally.com
Of Food and perhaps a little about me
June 2, 2008 at 2:26 am
· Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pork
Pork with Basil? Sounds familiar? That’s right, a particular Thai dish may have come to your mind, minced pork with thai basil, a common dish in Thailand. In order to try cooking my first dish with my flourishing home-grown basil, I immediately thought of this thai dish. But my version doesn’t have any fish sauce in it as I didn’t have any in my pantry. Fish sauce seems to be an important ingredient in most Thai dishes. I figured that they use it like how we use soy sauce? I’ve been wanting to buy a bottle but not sure which brand to get. I’m not sure if the taste of basil differs from thai basil. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Since I only had some pork loin in my freezer, I’ve decided to just cook the pork my way (with just some soy sauce), with basil and some pine nuts. I’ve seen NoobCook cooked one of her dish with pine nuts. In another occasion, I had a nice deep fried yam ring at a restaurant, topped with pine nuts instead of the usual cashew nuts. Pine nuts are really delicious. I bought them solely for my hamsters. And I thought I should put them into better use before they expires. I had wanted to make some pesto sauce with my basil and pine nuts, but have yet to make it as B didn’t really like basil that much.
Stir Fry Pork Strips with Basil and Pine Nuts
Serves 2
200g pork loin
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
10 to 15 basil leaves
20 to 30 pine nuts, toasted
Marinade
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp hua teow wine
1tsp corn flour
Use the back of the knife to ‘chop’ the pork loin evenly throughout, this is to make the meat thinner. Then cut the pork loin into ¼ inch strips. Marinate the pork loin strips with the above marinade and set it aside for about half an hour in the fridge.
To start cooking, heat oil in pan. Fry the chopped garlic until they starts to brown. Add meat to stir fry for a few minutes or until the meat is cooked. You do not need to fry the meat for too long as it might gets too tough. Add in the basil leaves and pine nuts. Stir fry for another 1 or 2 mins until the basil leaves wilt. Serves hot with rice.
You can add more basil and pine nuts if you like. Or try out the authentic thai minced meat with basil, by adding fish sauce. Paw paw has got some nice Thai recipes on her blog. Do try them out. It’s definitely tastier with some fats in the minced pork. Gosh.. me and my pork fats. Haha..
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paw paw wrote @ June 2nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
YumYum!!
Give me a bowl of rice!
noobcook wrote @ June 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
This looks really good, nothing beats using home grown herbs for cooking 
Isn’t it funny how our meals are influenced by our hamsters’ treats? keke
I want a bowl of rice too and dollops of this on the rice 
This is one dish I would order when I go to Thai rest. but they are usually chicken with thai basil. I love them spicy.
Heres a good site for Thai cooking
www.thaifoodtonight.com
It’s got about 30 recipes each one with a cooking video to go along. Free too
The Squid brand (as seen in the middle of this picture) is the one I see most often and used by many Thai friends. It has a more intense and almost ‘fishy’ flavour compared to soy sauce. Salty but with the taste of anchovies (ikan bilis), if you know what I mean.
Thai basil taste quite different from normal sweet basil (as used in Italian cooking). It has a slight spicy flavour with a tinge of aniseed. That’s what gives Thai curries and other dishes that distinctive flavour. I have only seen it here in the freezer section of Oriental supermarkets. They are expensive though so I never bought them myself.
yr photos are really nice!! i like basil, but seldom seen it used with pork.
Jessica wrote @ June 10th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Looks delicious! I love all kinds of stir-fry!
didally wrote @ June 11th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
paw paw: I would love to try the one you cooked instead, with minced meat and thai basil.
noobcook: Yeah, the ingredients I used are always revolved around my hamsters’ diet.
tigerfish: I like to order this dish at Thai restaurant too.
Norris: Thanks for the link!! It’s really useful and informative.
Nilmandra: Thanks, lady for the fish sauce and thai basil info. I don’t seems to see that brand of fish sauce around. Perhaps I have to go ‘little Thailand’ to search for these.
ladyironchef: You are too kind. I’m supposed to use thai basil actually. lol
Jessica: Stir-fries are easy and yummy, don’t they?
why so long nv update? : (
The marinade looks great! Pine nuts is an interesting choice. At first when I saw it I thought it was those asian yellow beans. Those are good too, especially when the marinade is sweet.
didally wrote @ July 11th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
ladyironchef: Soon, soon. Haha..
TheSassyChef: Do try pine nuts. It’s highly addictive! lol
Oh. why did not I think of pine nuts? I shall add that to my pork loin dishes. I usually just have pork loin sliced and pan fried after 1 day of marination.
Kevin wrote @ August 10th, 2008 at 3:30 am
That pork looks tasty! I like the use of the pine nuts.
didally wrote @ August 11th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
keropokman: Do try adding pine nuts. They’re very addictive! lol
kevin: Thanks.
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