Thai Basil Beef and Pork

Thai Basil Beef or Pork

Chris Hill's best. It can be a bit on the hot side, so adjust the chili and jalepeno peppers to your taste.

8T peanut oil
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped
20 thai chili peppers, finely chopped
6 jalepeno peppers, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 bunch cilantro leaves, no stems
12 oz filet mignon, thinly sliced or 1 pork tenderloin, thinly sliced (approx, 6-8 oz)
1 medium onion, half sliced, half finely chopped
1/3 Cup + 2 T fresh fish sauce
3 T soy sauce
3 T sugar
60 fresh thai basil leaves or holy basil leaves (do NOT use sweet basil)

Slice meat first and marinate in 2 T fish sauce whilst preparing the vegetables.

Get the pan as hot as possible, add 6 T peanut oil. Fry the meat, stirring constantly. The goal is to sear the meat and not to stew it. When the meat is about half done, add garlic, chili peppers, jalepeno peppers, and chopped onions. Keep the heat as high as possible. Cook a couple more minutes and add the basil leaves, soy sauce, sugar, and half of the fish sauce. When meat is almost done, add the bell peppers and the rest of the fish sauce. Add sliced onion and cilantro at the end as a garnish.

Tips: for the dish to come out properly, it is imperative that enough heat be available to keep the frying pan hot. Use the largest burner on your range. If the meat comes out "stewy", considering using two frying pans the next time, or halving the ingredients. A cast iron skillet can help in this by allowing you to build up enough heat the last the entire time to perform the cooking.

Total cooking time should be about 10 minutes; preparation time about 1 hour.