an evolution of basil pork - part 2

One of my favorite Thai dish is basil pork (moo pad kaprao). Not wanting to be corrupted by the Americanized Thai cuisine I actually ate very little Thai food in the US. I saved the enjoyment till I visited the country.
instead of buying ground pork I often just dice my own.

I seldom buy pre-minced meat. I prefer to buy a whole piece of pork butt or shoulder which gives me the flexibility of using it for difference dishes. If I need a big batch of minced meat I prefer using the meat grinder attachment on my Kenmore (this is the British Kenmore, not the Japanese Kenmore) mixer. It generate very consistent bit size which cannot achieved with food processor.
I saw the Kenmore (the century old British brand) mixer when in my teens and I thought I would want one some day

while it is relatively easy to clean it is still too much trouble for a few ounces of meat

it is much easier to dice it on a end-grain cutting board

I use about 5 ounces of meat for this dish

I have written a post on my experimenting with the Thai basil pork - moo pad kaprao. I have been making this dish many times now and each time I tweaked the recipe a bit to my liking.


Experiencing a diverse Thai food really open my eyes. One important thing I learnt is to be less rigid in adhering to the classic recipes. It's it what Thai food is all about - adaptation of local ingredients and make it better. Many Thai dishes are based on but adapted from those of other nearby countries including China.

In my version I wanted a mix of vegetable in this classic dish. I figure with at least one half vegetable is what I had in mind. I added Chinese celery to add fragrance. I added diced long beans to give the crunchy texture and sweetness. Both of these are common vegetable Thai use.


this was my early iteration from my previous post

 i experiment with dicing the long beans into shorter bits - also from previous post

 with more beans and still less pork - also from previous post

 this is my most recent result - I dices the long beans into still shorter bits; and I've got it nailed

So why dicing the beans into such small bits, you ask? You see one commonly overlook attribute of Thai cuisine is most dish are prepared so you can eat with just a spoon and folk. By dicing the beans into this small bits the beans distribute evenly with the pork (you can see the difference in the photos). In this most recent rendition every spoonful scoops up the same even delicious mixture. This dish should always be eaten with a bowl of good plain Thai jasmine rice.
closeup of the finished dish

I also made this tom yum goong - like (without the goong); I use manila clam and the paste from freshly cooked dungeness crab