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Pad Kra Pao (Holy Basil Stir Fry)
Pad Kra Pao (Holy Basil Stir Fry)
Chicken basil stir fry is one of the more popular Thai menu items that you wil find in this U.S. But in Thailand, pad kra pao, or holy basil stir fry is considered a street food. Here, you will get big chunks of chicken breast stir fried with Thai basil. The authentic version uses ground chicken and holy basil, which has a similar flavor to Italian basil. It is also topped with a fried egg, which makes this stir fry even better.
Equipment
- mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- 7 bird’s eye chilies
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 mild red chili
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup long beans cut into 2” pieces
- 1/4 medium onion
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 cups holy basil
- fried eggs
Sauce
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Mix all of the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
- In a mortar and pestle, pound the chilies and garlic into a paste.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the chili paste for 2 minutes.
- Add in the ground chicken, breaking up all of the clumps. Sauté for 4 minutes.
- Stir in the long beans and onions. Sauté for 4 minutes.
- Pour in the sauce. Cook for 2 more minutes.
- Take off the heat. Stir in the holy basil.
Cubano Sandwich
Cubano Sandwich
Sandwiches are this high ass’ favorite go to. I try to not by bread, because a loaf will be gone in 2 days in my home. Reubens have been my favorite sandwich forever, but I think the Cubano has replaced it. Why? 2 types of pork: ham and pork shoulder. If you want to go all out, you can cure your own ham and smoke your own pork shoulder for the Cubano. Recipes for both are attached below.Cubano sandwiches traditionally use a Cuban bread called pan sobao. It is similar to an Italian bread loaf, but sweeter in flavor and crustier in texture once toasted. You can find the bread at Latin markets. If not, a loaf of Italian bread will work. Smear each side with garlic butter and toast. Spread a thin layer of mustard on both slices. Top each side with Swiss cheese and ham. Then top one side with pulled pork and the other with sour pickles. Fold together.Cubanos are normally grilled in a panini press. If you don’t have one, no worries. Melt some butter on a griddle. Place the sandwich on top. Use a heavy cast iron skillet to weigh down the sandwich, just like a press. If you want, you can place the cast iron skillet in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes prior to pressing the sandwich. This will toast the topside. But who am I kidding. I want both sides to kiss the butter on the griddle. I skipped this step and used a cold cast iron pan just as a weight. I flipped mine after 4 minutes and toasted the other side. And then I gorged.
Equipment
- cast iron pan
Ingredients
- Cuban or Italian bread loaf
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 garlic cloves minced
- yellow mustard
- 3 slices Swiss cheese
- 4 slices ham thinly sliced
- 1/4 lb pulled pork
- bread and butter pickles
Instructions
- Melt 1 tbsp of butter. Mix with minced garlic. Butter the inside of the bread.
- Toast the buttered side of the bread on a griddle for 2 minutes over medium heat.
- Spread a thin layer of mustard on both slices of bread. Top each slice with Swiss cheese.
- Put 2 pieces of ham on each slice of bread.
- Place the pulled pork on one of the slices of bread. Place the pickles on the other side.
- Close the sandwich together. Melt the other tbsp of butter on the griddle over medium heat. Place the sandwich on the griddle.
- Weigh the sandwich down with a cast iron skillet. Toast for 3-4 minutes.
- Flip the sandwich over and toast for another 3-4 minutes with the cast iron skillet on top.
Smoked Boneless Ham
Brining and smoking hams is fairly easy if you have the patience. You get to control what goes into the ham without them being overly processed. It will cost you a fraction of the price while delivering better results than any store bought ham you can find. The brine for the hams is straight forward. 1/2 gallon of water with 1/2 cup of sea salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 1/2 tbsp of pink curing salts, plus a few other seasonings. The brine is enough for 2 sirloins. The pink curing salts are very necessary in the ham making process. Without them, you will have a smoked pork sirloin and not ham. A good rule for curing hams: cure the pork 1 day per pound to ensure that the meat is penetrated by the brine all the way through.As far as what cut of pork to use; ham is always made from the leg. Pork sirloin is your best option if you’re looking to make small boneless hams that aren’t spiral cut. You can find pork sirloins at just about every grocery store for $3/lbs or less. They all average around 3lbs for a whole one. You can definitely buy a pork leg and bone it out, but that will require a lot more work. The pork sirloins I cured brined for 3 days. Place them on a rack in the refrigerator to dry out for 1 day. Plain, basic hams can really be smoked with any type of wood; depending on the flavor that you are looking for. I smoked my hams with maple and applewood. You will need to preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Smoke the pork sirloins for 2 hours, maintaining a smoking temp between 225-250 degrees. At the 2 hour point, take the temp of the hams with a probe thermometer. Continue to smoke the hams until they reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Mine took an additional 30 minutes. Let them rest for a day before slicing.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- whole pork sirloins
Brine
- 1/2 gallon water
- 1/2 cup sea salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp pink curing salt
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 5 bay leaves
Wood Chips
- maple wood chips
- applewood chips
Instructions
- Mix all of the brining ingredients together. Place the pork sirloins in a gallon sized storage bags along with all of the brine. Brine the pork for 1 day per pound. These sirloins were 3lbs each.
- Let the pork dry out on a rack in the refrigerator for a day. Let rest for an hour at room temp before smoking.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Place your sirloins in the smoker.
- Smoke the pork for 2 hours. At the 2 hour mark, take the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. You want the internal temp to read 150 degrees. Both of my sirloins took an additional 30 minutes to smoke.
- Let the hams cool completely before slicing.
Cuban Pernil (Instant Pot)
Pernil is the Spanish word for shoulder, the cut I am using to make this pulled pork. Pernil is a staple at the dinner table in all Latin cultures, each with their own variations. The pork is rubbed and marinated with a very minimal amount of ingredients; then slowly roasted until it is tender and shreddable with a fork. This particular recipe involves the Instant Pot. What would normally take 4-6 hours in the oven or slow cooker takes only 90 minutes. That’s right. 90 minutes. Any cut of an animal that requires slow cooking like chuck roast, bottom round, lamb shoulder, shanks, brisket, etc, takes only 15 minutes per pound. The results are always amazing! It feels like the meat slowly cooked for hours. I highly recommend investing in an Instant Pot; especially if you want to cut cooking times down to a fraction of how long it normally would take.
Equipment
- instant pot
Ingredients
- 5 lbs pork shoulder cubed
- 4 limes juiced
- 1 head garlic minced
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 3 tsp salt
- 3 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Cut the pork shoulder into big cubes. Marinate in the lime juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, and oregano for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Add the marinated pork to the instant pot with a cup of water. Set the function to pressure cooker on high for 90 minutes.
- After the 90 minutes is up, your pork is ready to eat. An additional step that I like to do but isn’t necessary is to put the pork with some of the juices under the broiler for 10 minutes to crisp it up.
- Serve with Cuban rice.
Punjabi Tariwala Murgh
Punjabi Tariwala Murgh
Punjabi tariwala is an Indian chicken curry cooked with whole spices, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. There is a decent amount of prep work and steps to making this curry, all easy. I recommend prepping everything before you start cooking instead of prepping as you go. This will make cooking Indian food much easier since there are usually so many steps. You can adjust the level of heat by adding however many green chilies you like for the garnish.
Equipment
- mortar and pestle
- food processor
Ingredients
- 2 lbs bone in chicken thighs chopped into 3 with a clever
- 4 tbsp ghee
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 8 green cardamom pods
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves chopped
- 3 tbsp ginger minced
- 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 2 cup tomatoes puréed
- 2 cups chicken stock
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
Garnish
- cilantro chopped
- green bird’s eye chilies slit lengthwise
Instructions
- Lightly crush the cumin seeds in a mortar and pestle.
- Melt the ghee in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Sauté the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and 1/2 tsp of the crushed cumin seeds for 1 minute.
- Add in the onions and sauté for 15 minutes.
- Add in the garlic and ginger. Sauté for a minute. Stir in the turmeric and chili powder.
- Stir in the tomato purée and sauté for 5 minutes. Season with salt.
- Add in the chunks of chicken thigh. Sauté for 10 minutes, making sure that the chicken is coated in the sauce.
- Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Take off the cover and simmer for 5 more minutes to thicken up the sauce. Turn off the heat. Stir in the garam masala and the rest of the cumin seeds. Garnish with chopped cilantro and slit green chilies.
