Moo Pad Ma Khua Yoaw

Moo Pad Ma Khua Yoaw (literally, Eggplants stir-fry with pork)

This recipe is really homemade style, you can not find from any Thai restaurants as it’s more delicate and carful on the process, and of course its better flavour, you get better result from your effort. Pad Ma Khun Yoaw is one of my family’s favourite dishes. I remember my childhood, my parents liked to use oil from fat Pork for cooking. This dish, the eggplants and pork would be sitting in the oil but the flavour was so good. For this recipe I reduce some amount of oil, you can not see the oil sitting at the bottom of the plate but the flavour is still good. For people who are concerned or have a health issue, can use olive or other vegetable oil instead of oil from pork.

Ingredients

250  g         Pork loin, slice ½ cm x 4 cm. thick.

2  cloves     Garlic, chopped.

1 tsp           Potato Starch
1 tsp           Soy Sauce

A pinch of salt
(Marinate pork and ingredients above)

3                Medium size of Chinese Eggplants, slice into 1 cm. thick.

1                Medium size of Onion, roughly cut (jardinière)

100  g        Thai Basil, leaves.

4                Fresh Thai Chilli (Prik Kee Noo), chopped fine.(medium hot) 

1 ½ tbsp        Soy Sauce

Ground Peppercorn (4-5 turns of a peppercorn mill)

7 - 8 tbsp    Oil

Instruction

1. Marinate pork with soy sauce, garlic, potato starch and salt. Put aside.
2. Heat the wok or frying pan on medium high heat with 4 -5 tbsp oil, until the wok or frying pan hot.
3.  Spread the eggplants all over so that every piece of eggplant can touch the heat,   and reduce heat to medium. Continuing cooking, turn over or toss occasionally, add more oil if the eggplants are too dry, until every piece of eggplants soft (and brown if possible). Remove the eggplants from the wok.
4. Put 2 tbsp oil in the wok and set the heat back at medium high.
5. Sear or pan-fry the marinated pork on the hot wok until cooked and some part turn brown (if the pork is too dry you can add more oil).
6. Add onion into the pork and stir frying until onion is soft.
7. Add the eggplants and chilli to the pork and onion, stir- fry and mix well. Add the rest of soy sauce and ground peppercorn over the mixture until mix well.
8. Have a taste (you can add some more soy sauce if you’d like) and add Thai basil leaves before remove from the heat. Serve with steamed rice.