Thai Pad Prik Khing Moo

Last weekend I picked up a large bag of fresh ginger at the Asian grocery store — it had already started sprouting and was therefore discounted. It was clear that it needed to be used up as quickly as possible, so on Sunday I used part of it together with pork in a dry red curry.

Until yesterday I would have called this dish Thai Pad Prik Khing Moo ( ผัดพริกขิงหมู ) without batting an eye — until I found out that a dish by this name in Thailand is prepared without ginger, using a special curry paste as the base. But “Khing” ( ขิง ) means ginger, and surely you can’t just leave out one of the main components of the name, I thought.

Even in Thailand this apparently causes ongoing confusion among cooks, and there is much debate about whether ginger should be used or not. A look at history may shed some light. Pork stir-fried in curry paste was once a popular provision for long journeys. It was particularly valued by soldiers and was eaten together with vegetables.

But how did ginger come into the picture? Ginger is said, among other things, to help against motion sickness, and that could actually be the reason for its addition to the travel provisions mentioned above. Riding for hours in a bumpy cart or on the back of a water buffalo or elephant was certainly no pleasure. Anyone who has done an elephant tour in Thailand can surely imagine that well.

Over the course of history, the ginger was eventually lost — perhaps when elephants became less interesting as a means of transport. Instead, the earlier side vegetables in the form of snake beans were integrated into the dish. In recent times there seems to be a trend toward cooking the dish with ginger again.

I did not make any of this up myself, but learned it through the fascinating article by Highheel Gourmet.

So my recipe for Pad Prik Khing Moo follows the direction of the historical original. Those who prefer can also replace half the meat with snake beans or cooked green beans, as I did in this variant.

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Preparation

Don’t worry — the preparation of this dish goes faster than the long introduction might suggest. First, peel the ginger and cut it into thin matchsticks. Then thoroughly rinse the pork, pat it dry, and cut it into bite-sized strips.

Heat the oil or lard in a wok or large pan and stir-fry the red curry paste until fragrant. Before the paste darkens, add the pork and stir-fry continuously. The meat should mix with the paste and eventually be coated with it for the most part.

Once the meat has fully changed color, add the ginger matchsticks and briefly stir-fry them as well. Deglaze everything with fish sauce and Golden Mountain Sauce. Then dissolve the sugar in a little water, add this to the wok, and mix everything well.

Let the Pad Prik Khing Moo simmer for just a short while longer and then serve piping hot. Thai jasmine rice is naturally the ideal accompaniment.