Awesome Thai Food

Pad Phrik King (Stir Fried Phrik King) is stir fried curry from the Central and East of Thailand. Most of curries from these ares will have a sweet taste. So the curry paste that they use will be made from the large dried chili, which is less spicy than the small dried chili.

Pad Phrik King is considered a breakthrough dish that ancient people invented for their vacations (at that time there was not many stores as is popular today). Mostly they would have chili sauce, fish and rice wrapped in the lotus leaves. But there were some people who did not like very hot and spicy food and if they have to eat regularly among the companions of the house, they will avoid eating the chili sauce. So they invented this recipe to be one of the side dishes of rice.

There is the assumption about why they called this dish Pad Phrik King (“King” in Thailand means ginger) even though there is no King (ginger) in this dish. They said it is because the dish is spicy enough just like if ginger had been added to it. But it is not too spicy like Thai food in general. However, in the past they also put ginger into the curry also. Although currently they haven’t put ginger in the curry, but still call it by the original name. So we really don’t know why they called Pad Phrik King and where exactly this name came from. But the truth is this menu is certainly considered one of Thai peoples favorite dish ever.

Currently, there is Phrik King Curry packed in cans to sell in the shops and the supermarkets throughout Thailand and abroad. So it is easy and saves time to cook this type of food more often. Because you don’t have to waste the time to pound all the spices yourself.

Ingredients

• 300 grams (10 ounces) Pork with a little bit of fat part on or streaky pork (or some people may use other meats instead such as shrimp, chicken, beef, etc.)
• 300 grams (10 ounces) long yard bean (in this case I use green beans from around this area instead because I couldn’t find long yard bean anywhere)
• 2 Tbsp Phrik King curry paste (some places will be using the red curry paste to cook, the taste is quite different though)
• 3-5 Kaffir lime leaves
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 ½ Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

How to do…
1. Rinse the long yard bean thoroughly. Cut off the ends. Then chop the beans into the sections approximately 1-1.5 inches in length.
2. Add water to the pot, and put on the stove over medium heat until boiling. Then scald the beans in the boiling water for 1 minute and then soak in cold water to stop the cooking process. (it will make the beans fresh, crunchy, no stinky smell and they will have a better taste when finished stir frying.)  Drain and set aside.

3. Rinse pork thoroughly. Dry and cut into thin bite size pieces.
4. Rinse the Kaffir lime leaves thoroughly, drain, take out the stem of the leaves and finely chop.
5. Put the oil into the pan and bring to medium to high heat. When the oil gets hot add Phrik King Curry to fry until fragrant and it floats up (during boiling). Then add pork into it.

6. Fry until pork start to cook (about 5 minutes). Then season with fish sauce and sugar. Stir all the ingredients well together.
7. Add the beans, stir quickly and thoroughly. Then add half of the shredded Kaffir lime leaves. Fry for another 30 seconds until they mix well enough. Turn off the stove and lift the pan off.
8. Put Stir Fried Pork Phrik King Curry with beans into a dish. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded Kaffir lime leaves. Then serve immediately with steamed rice.