Sawaddee Ka
welcome to hot Thai Kitchen so a lot of people talk about Pad Thai being the national dish of
Thailand but I am here to tell you that there's no other dish more deserving of that title than what
we're gonna make today Pad Gaprao or holy basil stir fry with the fried egg on top of course it's
ubiquitous in Thailand we eat it way more than Pad Thai and I don't know a single Thai person that
doesn't love this dish now I have made this dish before but that recipe is sort of like a modern
day version of it today I'm going to show you the original the old school version that's actually
simpler but just as tasty let's get started Pad Gaprao is spicy so the first thing we're going
to deal with is Thai chilies now you can add as many as you can tolerate but this should be
spicy okay so I'm gonna get this pounded into a fine paste so there are no big surprising chunks
and try not to look at it when you're doing this in case it jumps into your eye
just like that chili Skin's totally okay but no big chunks lots of garlic going in and also some
milder chilies I'm adding two different types of chilies because pad kaprow is a dish with a lot
of chili flavor in it now if you don't tolerate a lot of spice that's a problem because you can only
add a little bit then there's really no chili flavor coming through so by adding two types
A milder one and a spicy one we can get around that I'm just gonna get this into a rough paste
thank you okay just like that this is the base of our stir fry right there
so we're making pad kaprao, kaprow means holy basil which I can't find here in Vancouver yeah
but you probably can't find it either unless you live in Thailand so I'm going to show you two good
options if you want to use a Thai ingredient you can use Thai Basil which is much more available
the thing is the flavor of Thai Basil isn't that close to holy basil your regular old Italian basil
that you can find anywhere is going to have a closer flavor to pad kaprao so I generally go
with this one it's also much easier to find but if you do use Thai Basil it'll be delicious and your
local Thai restaurant is probably using Thai Basil in their padka pow all right let's get cooking I
am making pad gaprao neua today and neua means beef now with beef I have a bit of a different
technique to pull out that beefy flavor that is different from when I made pad gaprao with chicken
so I'm gonna get the wok really really hot the wok is starting to smoke I'm gonna add the beef
thin that sizzle is exactly what I want to hear and what I'm trying to do is develop some
Browning on this beef because if I just cook it until it's cooked then you have sort of an
equivalent of foiled beef right and that's not good beefy flavor so you want to get it browned
you get that nice hamburger flavor it'll make a big difference okay I'm gonna give this a flip
definitely has more to go so I'm going to give it a toss and then re-spread it and let it sear
again what's going to happen halfway through is the beef is going to start releasing liquid and
as soon as that liquid comes out you're not going to get any Browning okay don't worry
it's totally normal we're just going to let it cook until all that water evaporates and
then the beef can start searing again so it'll sear in the beginning and it won't
stare in the middle and it'll sear again at the end yeah give it a stir every once in a while
you can see my beef is getting a little wet now so at this moment I'm not worried about it searing I
just need it to dry the sound is going to start to change from sort of simmering to sizzling
you hear that so that's how you know okay now we're starting to sear again so at this point you
don't want to be stirring it all the time you want to give it some time to make contact with a pan
nice now you don't have to go overboard with this I just want some Browning and you can really smell
it as well and I'm happy with that so I've turned the heat down a little bit I'm going to push
everything to one side my beef is impressively lean so I'm going to need to add a little more oil
and then our garlic chili paste goes in give that a quick saute of the chilies add more
oil as needed once the garlic has had time to saute then you can turn the heat back up
and mix the beef back in with the garlic because we wanted to sear the beef this is now too dry so
I'm going to add some water to get some more sauce action going if you have some unsalted
stock like chicken stock or beef stock you want you can use that as well that'll be even better
seasoning this is the difference between the modern version and the old school
version seasoning is very simple just fish sauce that's it a little sugar always to cut the salt
I'm just gonna let this cook until the sauce consistency is the way I want it I think this
is looking good julienned Peppers I'm using really really mild ones here just for a color and extra
crunch bell pepper will work and then I'm going to turn my heat off and all the basil it just needs
some residual heat to wilt and that is it you guys how easy is that before we move on I want to take
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is not complete without a Thai style fried egg on top and by Thai style I mean the egg whites
are crispy and bubbly and we fry that in a lot of oil usually by the time the whites are crispy the
yolk is somewhat set already like in my fried egg salad recipe which you should check out I'll link
to that below but today I'm going to show you a trick for those of you who like the whites
crispy but you want the yolks to very runny if you really like that runny yolk this is what you
do I've got a pan here with about a quarter inch of oil and I'm gonna get it hot you wanna start
this in hot oil and the way I like to test my oil temperature for this because it doesn't need to be
precise I just drop in you know bits of garlic or whatever you've got going on and if it's bubbling
excitedly kind of like that you're okay here's the trick you fry the white and the yolk separately
and it should start to Bubble like that this guy needs to be punctured okay so see my white
is starting to Brown around the edges so now I'm going to drop my egg yolk into this perfect hole
and I'm just gonna spoon a little bit of hot oil around the edges just to seal it and that's it
super crispy white my yolk is basically completely runny and it is ready to exit onto our side plate
with Jasmine rice always look at that oh this is bringing me memories of home already like
there are a few dishes that screams Thailand and this is one of them I have it every time
I go home every single time and then of course the beautiful egg goes on top look at that it
was like I photoshopped that onto the plate for a complete experience there's a classic
condiment that's always served with patka pow and that is pregnant which is just some chopped
chilies you pour a little bit of fish sauce on top and a squeeze of lime and that's it it's an
all-purpose seasoning that we put on just about anything that needs a little extra boost and in
this case we like to put it on top of the egg so that the egg has a little bit of flavor you wow
and why I love runny egg yolk for this is because the stir fry itself is you know it's on the dry
side right but so the egg yolk kind of becomes this creamy element that kind of binds everything
together it just for me it's not even it's it's not a pack of how if I don't have the fried egg
smells so good
um I love everything about this the beef because we took the time to sear has that you know robust
grilled flavor that you would not have if you just cooked it and called it a day so it's a really
important step and it also makes the beef chewier and drier which works really well to add a lot of
texture to this dish the flavor of the basil with the beef goes together incredibly well and to
be honest I know this is not holy basil but it's close enough that if you gave it to me didn't say
anything it wouldn't trip me out I was just like this is delicious so I really hope you give it a
try especially with the fried egg do not skip that it makes all the difference the recipe as always
will be on hotaikitchen.com and a special thanks to our patreon members who help support the show
and if you want to know what that's all about I'll link to more information in the description below
thank you as always for watching and I will see you next time for your next delicious Thai meal