This is the second awesome recipe we tried from Andy Ricker's Pok Pok. This time, we cooked together, which was not only a hoot and a holler, but made the fast pace of the cooking a lot easier. I was kind of amazed at what we produced from this recipe. I don't know what I was expecting, but it looked like the Phat (which I usually see as "Pad") Si Ew you get in restaurants, and tasted…well, better! This is truly not a difficult recipe, and it's fun to make and delicious to eat. You'll need a wok, and if you have it, a wok spatula, which is kind of square-ish and slightly turned up at the sides. Ikea sells one for like $4. A mortar and pestle is also good to have (Ikea has a cheap one of those, too - $15!).
Probably the trickiest part was making the fried-garlic oil, just because you have to cut up so much garlic. You could also make a fried-shallot oil - you only need three shallots, sliced very thinly, and you follow the same process, except they cook a little longer - looks more like 10-20 minutes to get them crispy and golden brown.
His recipe calls for a few things to enhance the dish for serving, most of which are recipes in the book as well - fish sauce-soaked chiles, vinegar-soaked chiles, toasted-chile powder, and sugar. We didn't take the time to make and add these, but I bet they'd be delicious if you had them.
I was thrown off at first by how Ricker's recipes are organized. He breaks the recipe into sections - in this case, separating the ingredients and steps for pork and noodles; some ingredients then get repeated in both sections. But actually, this helps to break the recipe down and understand it better.
Finally, he recommends making this in single-serving batches. We cheated and made two batches at once, but the recipe below is to serve one. Just go ahead and double it - cooking two at once was fine.
Things go pretty fast once you start cooking, so having everything prepped, and having a helper, are great.
We started by making the fried garlic oil:
15 cloves peeled garlic, cut into about 1/8 inch pieces
1 cups vegetable oil
Set a fine-mesh strainer over a heatproof bowl.
Pour the oil into a small pan (oil should be about 3/4 inch deep). Put the pan over high heat and heat until a piece of garlic bubbles right away when added to the oil. Add all the garlic, and turn the heat down immediately to low. Stir once or twice.
Cook, stirring, until the garlic is light golden brown and crisp. It should take about 4-6 minutes. Don't rush it.
Pour the pan's contents through the strainer. Done! The oil keeps for about 2 weeks in an airtight container, and you can also save the garlic (not in the fridge) for up to two days.
And for the main event:
PORK
1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small clove peeled garlic, crushed into small pieces in a mortar
4 oz boneless pork loin or lean shoulder, thinly sliced against the grain into bite-size strips (about 1/8 inch thick)
1/2 tsp Thai fish sauce
1/4 tsp granulated sugar
NOODLES
6 oz fresh wide, flat rice noodles (you will buy these pre-cooked; we found ours in sheets and then cut them up)
1 tbsp Thai thin soy sauce
1 tsp Thai black soy sauce
1 tsp granulated sugar
Small pinch ground white pepper
1 tbsp fried-garlic oil (see above)
1 large egg, room temp
1 tbsp crushed garlic (in mortar)
2 oz baby Chinese broccoli, stems trimmed to 1or 2 inches and clusters separated (or regular Chinese broccoli, leaves coarsely chopped and stems thinly sliced)
Cook the Pork
Heat a wok over very high heat, add the oil, and swirl it around the wok, coating the sides. It should start to smoke just lightly - take it off the heat and add the garlic. Let the garlic sizzle, stirring a little, until it's fragrant but still white (about 15 seconds).
Wok goes back on the heat. Add the pork, stir well. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and stir and scoop and flip until the cork is just cooked through. Transfer the pork into a bowl.
Prep the Noodles
Separate the noodles. Put them in a bowl and pop them in the microwave for about a minute.
Cook and Finish
In a small bowl, combine the thin and black soy sauces, sugar, and pepper, and stir well.
Heat the wok over very high heat again. Add the garlic oil, swirl it around the wok to coat the sides. The oil will start to smoke lightly again - at this point, crack in the egg. It should spit and sizzle. Don't touch it until the egg starts to turn light golden brown around the edges. Then, flip the egg, not worrying if the yolk breaks. Push it to one side of the wok.
Add the noodles and cook about 15 seconds, prodding them so they don't clump together. Add the garlic and cook another 15 seconds, stirring to mix and break up the noodles and egg a bit. Add the broccoli and stir, scoop, and flip, until the leaves just start to wilt, about another 15-30 seconds.
Last, add the pork and the soy sauce mixture (you can put a splash of water in the bowl that held the mixture, and swirl it around and add to the stir fry to get all the sauce out). Stir, scoop, and flip, letting the egg break up, and mixing everything together to absorb all the flavors, about another minute or so.
And you're done!
