This is a bit of a Thai national dish, most Thai people I know would eat this at least once a week. You need very few ingredients for this dish and the star ingredient is the holy basil (or bai kaphrao in Thai) of course. You are more likely to get Thai sweet basil (bai horapha) instead when you order this in a Thai restaurant here in Melbourne; I think it's due to the fact that holy basil is four times more expensive. If you can't find holy basil you should still try this recipe with normal thai basil, it will be called phat horapha instead (I personally think the restaurant should do so too!) but never the lest delicious!! You may use minced prawns, beef or pork for this dish, I prefer to roughly chop the meat instead. Don't be alarmed by the amount of chilies used in this recipe, reduce it to your liking but a Thai person would say "mai phet mai aroy na!!!" (if it's not spicy it's not delicious ok!)
P.S holy basil is normally found packaged in plastic bags near the fresh herbs section of your asian grocer. Due to the unbearably hot weather in Melbourne, I'm going to start posting some cold dishes that required very little time around the hot stove!! Curries and soups will appear in the next Thai series.
serves 4 as part of a Thai meal or 2 as a one dish meal with rice
you'll need;
1 whole free range chicken (about 1kg) boned, skinned and roughly minced or 1kg of chicken mince
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
5 bird chilies, chopped
1 bunch of Thai holy basil (bai kaphrao), picked
1/2 onion, sliced
3 tbs of fish sauce
2 tbs of sugar
Fry chopped garlic and chilies for 30 seconds.
Add minced chicken and fry for 2 minutes, season with fish sauce and sugar.
Add basil, turn off heat and mix well.
I serve it with Thai stuffed chicken wings and Thai sausage salad.
Or serve with rice and a fried duck egg, a very satisfying one dish meal indeed!!
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