Pad Krapow is a hugely popular dish in Thailand. It’s eaten everywhere. Quick, simple to prepare and bursting with flavour. It’s often eaten for lunch or anytime you need to immediately satisfy your hunger.
“Every westerner says Thai food, Pad Thai. Pad Krapow is the Thai hamburger, a one plate dish“
– Chef McDang.
Although meat fried with Thai basil does not resemble a hamburger it is certainly Thai fast food.
Pad Krapow is versatile too, it can be prepared with chicken, pork, beef, seafood, tofu, whatever you fancy really. Pad means fried and Krapow is the Thai name for the basil that is one of the key ingredients. So Pad Krapow Muu (pork) is fried pork with Thai basil. Easy. Well, there are a few more ingredients, combine them correctly and you create a dish to impress.
Pad Krapow is the Thai hamburger, a one plate dish
As Pad Krapow is a staple dish in Thailand it is available pretty much everywhere in Khao Lak. Khao Lak Wired will be listing some recommendations of where to eat Pad Krapow, but first we should really have a go making the dish ourselves. Actually, to be more precise, one of the best Thai cooks we know is going to show us how it is made.
Pad Krapow is your choice of meat, lets take muu (pork), fried with garlic, chilly, onion, oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and Thai basil leaves. It is served with rice, sliced cucumber, phrik nam bplaa (chopped chillies and lime in fish sauce) and a fried egg on top. Why the fried egg? Well that’s just how it’s eaten. Without the fried egg would be like a hamburger without ketchup. In recent years is it becoming popular to add some other chopped vegetables into the mix, such as carrot or green beans.
Pad Krapow Ingredients
Ingredients for Pad Krapow Muu
To cook Pad Krapow
4-5 cloves of garlic
10 fresh chillies
100g minced pork (chicken, minced beef, shrimp)
Pork stock
4-5 table spoons of Oyster sauce
1 table spoon of fish sauce
1 table spoon of soy sauce
A good pinch of sugar
A good handful of Thai basil leaves
1 egg
We will also need a pestle, mortar and a decent wok.
To serve Pad Krapow
Served with Prik Nam Bplaa and sliced cucumber
Cucumber
Chopped chillies, sliced lime in fish sauce (Phril Nam Bplaa)
How to make Pad Krapow – Thai Cooking
“The thing to remember with Thai cooking, it is the balance of saltiness, sweetness, sourness and the paste that is the key.”
The saltiness comes from the fish sauce, oyster sauce has a slightly sweet taste and sprinkled with prik nam bplaa before eating adds the sourness. But it all starts with the paste.
Smashing garlic and chillies
Mash the garlic and chillies in a pestle and mortar to a rough paste. Heat some oil in the wok and fry the paste for a couple of minutes. Add the pork and fry for a further three to four minutes. Then add the oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce. Add a little water with the pork stock. Fry some more, check the taste and add sugar if needed.
Finally throw in the Thai basil leaves, fry for a further two minutes and serve next to rice and sliced cucumber.
Don’t forget to fry the egg in lots of hot oil so the edges are nice and chrispy, Thai style.
For a vegetarian alternative. Chop some tofu into small cubes and fry in hot oil until the tofu is slightly crispy. Then use instead of the pork.
A few simple ingredients, short preparation and cooking time and you have a tasty authentic Thai dish.
Where to eat Pad Krapow in Khao Lak
Khao Lak Wired will always be on the look out for great venues to eat Pad Krapow, it’s one of our favourite dishes. Check out where to eat Pad Krapow in Khao Lak (coming soon) for the best places we’ve found so far, as well as simple instructions how to find these places.
Please let us know if you discover other great Pad Krapow places in Khao Lak, especially if you make it yourself. We are always on the look out for great Thai food.
