Thai Beef with Sweet Basil Leaves

Thai Beef with Sweet Basil Leaves

Recipe only

This quick Thai beef with sweet basil dish is healthy and scrumptious for a meal in a hurry. I had a Thai lady cooking near my apartment in Bangkok and I ordered this from her because she was excellent at cooking this recipe. If you do not like chilies to be hot and spicy! Leave the seeds out of the dish, or use a longer sweeter chili. I love the flavor of chilies. Make sure you buy Thai sweet basil, not European basil for this dish.

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

4 tablespoons homemade chicken stock, or water

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 bird's eye chilies, bruised with the back of a chefs knife

500 g rump or fillet steak, finely sliced into strips

1 medium Asian shallot, cut into wedges

2 handfuls of Thai sweet basil leaves

METHOD

1.  Mix the fish sauce, oyster sauce, stock and sugar in a small bowl.

2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan and stir-fry half the garlic over a medium heat until lightly browned. Add half the crushed chilies and half the meat and stir-fry over a high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the meat is cooked to your liking. Remove from the wok and repeat with the remaining garlic, chilies and meat. Return all the meat to the wok.

3. Add the onion and the fish sauce mixture and stir-fry for another 1 minute.

4. Add the basil leaves and stir-fry until the basil begins to wilt. Taste, then adjust the seasoning if necessary. Spoon onto a serving plate or into a bowl.