This is a nice Thai dish, based on a recipe noted by Nat Thaipun, the Australian master chef.
The curry paste in this case is ground herbs and spices, with no coconut milk added. There’s a little heat from the dried red chilies, but it’s not an overall spicy dish. The one thing that I found a little off was the chopped lemongrass stalks. I recommend really grinding all the curry ingredients in a small blender or food processor, then vigorously pounding them via mortar and pestle. You really want to break those lemongrass, shallot and dried chili bits into a pulp.
Other than that, it’s a really easy recipe.
What you’ll need for the curry paste
- 3 dried red chilies, soaked in warm water for a few minutes to soften them
- 2 red Asian shallots (the small ones), finely chopped
- 2 lemongrass stalks, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1t chopped fresh turmeric (or 0.5t dried and ground)
- 1t shrimp paste
What you’ll need for the rest of the dish
- 1T and 1t neutral oil
- 1 lb. lean ground pork
- 4 lime leaves, slivered (discard the center vein)
- 1T fish sauce
- 1t palm or brown sugar
- Sliced cucumber (optional) for serving
- Sliced Thai chilis (optional), seeded and sliced lengthwise
What to do
Drain the soaking chilies and dry them. Put the chilis and the rest of the curry paste ingredients in a small blender or food processor and pulse them until everything is as ground up as possible. Transfer the chopped ingredients to a mortar and using the pestle, mash them up as much as possible.
Heat the oil in a wok or large frypan over medium heat. Add the curry paste and stir-fry for about 5 minutes until fragrant. Turn up the heat a bit and add the ground pork, stirring often, browning it for about 10 – 12 minutes.
Stir in the lime leaves, fish sauce and sugar and stir-fry for another 8 or so minutes until the pork is fully cooked and the curry has dried.
Serve hot, garnished with chilis and cucumber.
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