Thai beef with sweet basil and roasted rice

I have a bumper crop of Thai sweet basil at the moment. Every summer I grow quite of lot of this favourite herb from cuttings. I bought a pack of basil, trimmed and put the stems in water, covered the leaves with perforated clear plastic bag and put in a cool light area. Change the water and clean the stems every few days to remove any decays. In about 10 - 14 days the cuttings would have long roots ready for planting.I used Thai sweet basil for Thai dishes as well as Chinese like three cups chicken.When I was in Thailand the last time, there was one unforgettable beef dish i really like but I just can't remember what it was called. It's a stir fried beef with Thai sweet basil and ground roasted rice. It's spicy, sweet, sour, salty and remarkably fragrant from sweet basil and ground rice. I have been trying to recreate it at home, the result been pretty good.Here is the guesstimate recipe, much as I can remember the taste, texture and flavour.

 Ingredients:

about 400g beef steak (rump or sirloin)
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp of Thai chilli paste in a jar (nam prik pao), more or less to your taste
1.5 - 2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lime juice
about 2 tbsp ground roasted rice, kao kua (see below how to make this)
about 1 handful of basil leaves, rinse and shake off as much moisture as possibleabout 1/3 cup of oil

 Method:

Chargrill or fry the beef like a steak, medium rare. Leave to rest and cool. Then cut into thin slices.

In a clean wok, heat the oil till almost smoking hot. Then drop in half the basil. The oil will sizzle rapidly. Stir and fry the leaves for about 1 minute till darker in colour and turning crisp. Remove and leave to one side.

Remove most of the basil frying oil and leave about 1.5 tbsp. Heat and add in the garlic, stir till fragrant. Add chilli paste, sugar and fish sauce. Stir and reduce the sauce till quite thick.
Then add in the beef and remaining fresh basil, stir till fresh basil wilted and and beef is coated with the sauce. Then stir in lime juice. Heat off stir in fried basil leaves and ground rice. Ready to plate up. Can sprinkle on some more ground rice on top

How to make ground roasted rice - kao kua 

Quite easy just take a handful of glutinous rice (sticky rice) and dry roasted with a small frying pan. Keep the heat fairly high and keep stirring till rice grains turning rich golden brown. Leave to cool then ground using a coffee grinder or a mini blender till very fine like powder. You can sieve it if the grains look a bit coarse. Any leftover can keep in an airtight container for weeks.If you don't have glutinous rice, you can use jasmine rice but the rice grains can be harder, more difficult to grind and can feel gritty to the taste.




Source

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nyonya kuih lapis - nine layers cake 九層糕

Image
This colourful steamed cake is a Chinese Nyonya fusion, soft and slightly chewy. I love this since I was a kid. I like to peel the layers one by one and eat it that way.This cake is more like a pudding than a western cake. It is normally called nine layers cake due to the number of layers. It is not essential to have nine layers but that has been a tradition passed down from generation to generation, mother to daughters recipe. Nine is an auspicious word to signify long lasting and long life. There are so many different ways to make this cake, different colours, different flavours and different flour mixture to give various degree of softness and chewiness. Rice flour is the base of this cake mix, tapioca and wheat starch are added to give a more bouncy and chewier texture, some recipes use mung bean starch.I like to add coconut to give nice rich flavour. With the colours, I am not keen to add artificial colours. I sometime use two colours sometime three. I love the flavour of panda...
Read more

Zha Jiang Mian 炸醬麵 - Fried sauce noodles

Image
Zha Jiang Mian 炸醬麵 is fried sauce noodles, I called it Chinese spag bog. These noodles are very popular in most parts of Northern China, especially Beijing.Koreans are also fan of zha jiang noodles, similar name called jajangmyeon . The sauce Korean used is not the same as Chinese, similar flavour but made with black beans called chungjang .Chinese zha jiang sauce is dark brown, salty, sweet and very fragrant. The main sauce ingredient for the sauce is sweet bean sauce (sweet flour sauce) 甜麵醬 and/or yellow bean sauce 黃醬. I like the sauce a bit spicy so I always add some chilli bean sauce ( douban jiang ) 豆瓣醬. The sauce mix is fried till caramelised in plenty of oil till fragrant. If you use only a little oil you won't get the same flavour.Other than meat, fried or marinated firm tofu can be added. Some people like to add shitake but not common.I really like Zha Jiang sauce a lot. It keeps really well...
Read more

Homemade rustic pulled noodles

Image
When I have few hours with nothing to do at home, I always ended up in the kitchen making something. Today was no difference. I wanted zha jiang mian 炸醬麵 (fried sauce noodles) for dinner but don't fancy using dried noodles. So I made some rustic pulled noodles. I am not expert enough to make those super pulled noodles. My version is easier and more rustic.Here was what I did. This portion is enough for 2 peopleIngredients:250 - 275g strong white bread flour (extra strong if you can find some)1 medium or large egg3/4 - 1 tsp saltwaterExtra flour for dusting Method: Beat the egg and salt in a measuring cup. Top up the egg with water to 1/2 cup (125ml). Stir. Put around 250g of the flour in a mixing bowl, pour in the egg mixture. Start mixing till all the dry flour is absorbed into the dough. This dough should be quite stiff. If a bit sticky add in more flour. When the bowl is clean, cover and leave to rest for about 15 minutes. Then knead the dough. The dough should n...
Read more