A restaurant style Spicy basil fried rice is onof our favorite meals and is on regular rotation in our household. I planted a few Thai basil plants a few years ago that have diligently come back every year. I throw them in all my Asian recipes from Thai stir fries to salads. This past week when the temperature dropped into the 30s at night I saw them slowly wither away. So yesterday I picked all the remaining leaves and made a huge batch of this favorite fried rice with string green beans.
What I love with the homemade version is that you can replicate the restaurant recipes and control the oil and boost the flavors with more aromatics. Thai basil is easy to find in Asian markets or you can totally use Italian basil, either ways this is worth making. I love it spicy so I go with 4-5 red hot chillies but you can tone it down with one or none, its still very good. This recipe is very forgiving and adaptable with any protein. Works great with crumbled tofu or thinly chicken or just 2 cups of fresh veggies(my favorite) Enjoy!
Spicy Thai Basil Fried Rice, Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
- 3 to 5 fat cloves garlic
- 1 to 5 Thai chili to your taste
- 1 medium onion
- 2 tablespoon regular/vegetarian oyster sauce or vegetarian mushroom sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce ( substitute with Thai light soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp black/white pepper
- 2 tbsp any neutral oil
- 12 pieces 16/20 extra jumbo shrimp, peeled & deveined or (sub with any protein of your choice)
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups day old cold jasmine or basmati rice, separate between the fingers gently not to break the grain
- large handful Thai basil or regular basil
INSTRUCTIONS
- Mix oyster sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar and pepper in a small mixing bowl, set aside.
- Mince or pound the red chillies and garlic in a motor and pestal or food processor.
- Heat a large skillet, frying pan or a wok over high heat until smoking. Add garlic-chili paste, shallot and shrimp. Stir fry, cook the shrimp a minute on each each side, once the shrimp is pink, push to a side of the wok.
- Crack 2 eggs in the wok. Let the eggs cook a bit, when the start to firm then scramble the eggs but not fully firm.
- Add cold rice and pour sauce mixture. Toss everything together until rice is coated evenly with the sauce, stir fry continuously for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Toss in basil and take it off the heat. Keep tossing until basil is well combined with the fried rice.
- Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy hot with raw sliced cucumber, a small squeeze of lime juice + extra chili sauce.
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