Pad Kee Mao - ผัดขี้เมา

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In Thailand, traditionally, hard liquors are more popular than beer and wine. People get together to drink and eat at a restaurant and then just continue to sit and talk and drink long past dinner. Since drinking reduces the sensitivity of the taste buds, people ask for spicier food as the evening progresses, so the cooks pile on chili peppers and seasonings to please the crowd.

Pad Kee Mao has changed quite a bit in Thailand. Some people now make it with vegetables. Some recipes confused Pad Kee Mao with Pad Cha which starts the same as Pad Kee Mao with garlic and chili peppers but ends up with Chinese keys, green peppercorns, kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil. This Kee Mao recipe keeps the authentic flavors and ingredients with the right amount of heat.

2 Servings, Prep Time: 20 Minutes, Total Time: 20 Minutes

2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 Sweet Peppers
1 Thai chili pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 cups thinly sliced pork
1 cup holy basil

Tips and Techniques

In Thailand, we use a type of chilis called Prig Chee Fah for this recipe but a combination of sweet peppers and hot peppers will give the right flavors without too much heat.
When you use only Thai chili peppers, you can pound garlic and chili peppers together in a mortar and pestle as other larger peppers are more difficult to pound. Chopping the peppers seems to make sense.
I add many sweet peppers to tone down the heat for people who enjoy a small amount of chili peppers. You can use whatever amount of chili peppers in order to hit the spot.

Method

Prepping:

Chop garlic and chili peppers. You can use any combination of peppers for their heat and colors. With this recipe, I use one Thai hot chili for the heat. The rest are sweet peppers. Pick the holy basil from stems. Thinly slice the pork.

Cooking:

Add cooking oil to a wok or pan, using high heat. When the mixture of hot chili and garlic hits the hot oil, the fumes may irritate your eyes and nose -- make sure your kitchen is well ventilated. With just one hot pepper, everyone in the vicinity was coughing and sneezing.

Add the mixture of garlic and chili peppers in. Let it cook briefly, then add the pork. Stir until the pork starts to turn brown. You should see the juice pooling. Add soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. When the pork is cooked, taste to see if you like the seasoning.

When the pork is ready, add the noodles. Stir to mix the noodles in with the pork. If you want to taste the noodles again, this is a good time.

Add holy basil and stir until the holy basil is incorporated into the noodles. Turn off the heat and serve hot with jasmine rice.