Yeah, a lot of Chinese and Thai dishes use sugar, and it helps with the tang in a sauce like this. But I still try to avoid sugar. I bought a little bag over a year ago, still haven’t finished it!
My use of cashew and my veggie selection (leftover chili veggies) aren’t really authentic either.
Still had a nice balance of flavors, maybe a bit of sugar would have picked it up a notch. 2/3 is still in the wok and I’ll probably heat it up with oyster sauce for dinner
I believe in the use what you have school of cooking too.
Ah, i know what you’re making!
Awesome
One of my go-to meals is frozen dumplings, in a can of chicken broth, with fresh green leafy vegetables added at the end. I often make too much dipping sauce (chili sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil), but save the leftover for fried noodles
Looks delicious
Made some home made sardines the other day. Used Pacific saury which are cheap, easy to get and taste quite similar to sardines. The end result was good, a bit stronger flavour than sardines, but was nice served on toast with some fried eggs, the bones were totally soft. I’ll add onions next time and maybe consider putting some vinegar or lemon juice.
Method
Taking a break from Chinese food. When I lived in Thailand pad kapao was the second thing I learned to order (after kao pad). Like fried rice there is a lot of variation on how it is made, but it is easy to get and tends to be good
Let me know if you are curious about the method or ingredients
nailed it, first bite transported me back to Thailand
Recipe? I’m game!
I do everything by eye, or based on how much there is of an ingredient, and do variations as we go, but today was:
Heat a bit of oil in the wok, add the onion and stir fry until sweating but not brown, add the garlic until fragrant, add the ground meat and some salt. Stir until well cooked
Add the basil, chili, oyster sauce, fish sauce, fresh lime juice, stir a bit, then turn of heat and continue stirring. Too much heat at this stage ruins the flavors and colors
Easy
Was that a red onion or shallots?
The best Thai dish, as far as I’m concerned. I must have had it a few hundred times.
I usually blitz the onions in a food processor when I’m making it at home, but that’s because I’m fussy about having big chunks of onions in food (they’re not always present in Thai restaurant versions anyway - I’ve read some people claiming they’re not supposed to be there at all, but it’s like 50:50 in my experience).
I don’t use that actually, and it’s not in any of the recipes I’ve seen.
I normally add chicken stock though and use two different soy sauces (a normal light one and a darker one like kecap manis). I’m probably a bit conservative with the fish sauce too, because adding too much makes it a bit too 
for me.
Today was red onion, one of my favorite restaurants tended to use that and a basil similar to what we get here. I will also use white onion or shallots on occasion, all are good. I don’t usually use shallots for this dish, because they’re a pain in the ass. I do prefer shallots for larp, tho
Depends, yeah, lots of variation. When I make it with chicken breast I use thick slices of chicken and just quarter the onion, 2 cuts so easy. This is how they did it at my favorite restaurant
Lots of variation, can’t say I looked up recipes for this
I’ve never used chicken stock in this, I don’t want a lot of runny sauce. For soy sauce, I’m lazy and always keep one bottle. Today I had the soy sauce out but didn’t use it because there was enough liquid in the pan. I like the oyster sauce in this for the color and thickness and sweetness.
I’m with you on the fish sauce. I hate seafood but the flavor isn’t right without it. This brand is strong, i just give a few drops or it is too much.
Edit: so i took a quick look at 3 recipes, very quick and the first two had lime as an egg seasoning for the pad kapao (I never do the egg at home, but always in a restaurant)
The third one had this:
So maybe try and squeeze a lime wedge on at the end, @Andrew and see how you like that tang!
