Name: Thai-Style Pork with Chillies and Asparagus
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 5 garlic cloves, sliced; 6 white peppercorns, roasted and crushed; 6 red eschalots, sliced; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon chopped galangal; 2 teaspoons Thai shrimp paste, wrapped in foil and grilled until fragrant; 2 tablespoons fish sauce; 1 tablespoon chopped heart of lemon grass; 3 dried red chillies, seeded; 6 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon grated kaffir lime zest; 1 teaspoon scraped and chopped coriander root; ½ teaspoon coriander seeds, roasted and crushed; 300 g pork fillet; 3 tablespoons palm sugar; 6 spears asparagus, cut into 8-cm lengths; ¼ cup fresh black cloud ear fungi; 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Simply Asian

By Neil Perry

Published 2000

About

Spicy and delicious, this stir-fry works just as well with beef, chicken or prawns. The paste can be a little rougher than usual, adding another textural dimension to the dish. The optional addition of some soaked or caramelised dried shrimp also adds an interesting edge.

Ingredients

Spice Paste

3 dried red chillies, seeded
6 red eschalots, sliced
5 garlic cloves, sliced

Method

In a mortar with a pestle, pound all the paste ingredients until well incorporated but still quite rough in texture.

Trim the pork and cut into thin slices across the grain. Heat the oil in a wok until just smoking. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the paste to the wok and cook until fragrant, then add the palm sugar and fish sauce. R