Desperately craving the Thai Fried Rice from my local Thai take-out place the other night, but determined to use the food up in the fridge before heading back to Panama for a visit, I decided it was time for me to learn how to cook some good Thai food.
Since discovering the wonders of fresh sweet basil in Thai cuisine, that's pretty much all I can think about, so I set off looking for a recipe. This is what I found:
Thai Basil Fried Rice (serves 4 as an entrée)
Ingredients:
4 cups "already cooked" jasmine rice or long grain rice (let the rice cool before using it in the fried rice recipe)
6 big cloves garlic (crushed)
2 to 4 Thai red and green chili peppers or 1 to 2 Serrano peppers (crushed)
¼ cup cooking oil
1 to 1 ½ lbs chicken meat (cut into bite sizes)
3 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 medium size red bell pepper (julienne)
2 cups fresh sweet basil leaves
1 cucumber ( cut into bite sizes)
½ cup cilantro sprigs for garnish
Cooking Instructions
First, heat the oil in a deep pan or wok over high heat. Wait till the oil starts to smoke. Add crushed garlic and crushed chili peppers. Stir quickly (don’t let them burn). Then immediately add sliced chicken meat. Stir Add oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar. Stir until the chicken is cooked. through. Add already cooked rice. Stir quickly until sauces are blended with rice (a couple of minutes). Stir in red bell peppers and keep stirring for few seconds then add basil leaves, Turn the heat off. Garnish with sliced cucumbers and cilantro sprigs. Serve Immediately.
This was absolutely delicious, although I did make a couple of modifications. Firstly, I used leftover wholegrain rice, which was just fine, and I used pork instead of chicken. I actually would have preferred to use chicken, but all I had was pork, and it worked just fine. The only other thing I skipped was the fresh cilantro, as I felt it was unnecessary and might take away from the delicious stardom of the fresh basil, which was the whole point of making the dish. Note: this is one of those dishes that you want to be diligent with your preparation. Cut up everything before hand, and get all your condiments ready to throw in the pan. It's a really quick dish once you have everything prepared.
Before the Thai Fried Rice, I made something I've never done before and what's even cooler than that is that I didn't use a recipe, I just made it up, and what's even better than that is that it turned out really well! Here's how it went:
Shrimp Wontons (serves 2 as an appetizer)
6 large cooked shrimp - shelled, deveined and chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 tbsp chilli and garlic sauce (Thai-style)
2 tbsp chopped scallions
1 tsp oyster sauce
10 wonton wrappers
1 egg (beaten to make an egg wash)
Sweet chilli dipping sauce
Oil for frying (peanut oil works well)
Method:
Mix all the ingredients together.
Take the wonton wrappers and lay them flat on a dry surface. If they are sticking, sprinkle with a little flour. Place a nickel-sized amount of the mixture in each wonton and fold the wrapper to make a perfect triangle. Seal the wrapper in place using the egg wash and make sure the sides are sealed correctly. You don't want the mixture coming out in the pan. Heat the oil to a high heat and gently place the wontons in the oil. Don't overcrowd the pan, just do a couple at a time. They will float to the top and turn golden when ready. Take them out and place on paper towel to soak up any excess grease.
Serve immediately with the chilli dipping sauce. Yummy!!!
