Pad Kapi Sator: Stir-Fried Stink Beans
Sator beans with shrimp paste and pork
Recently I got stink beans, which are also called stink beans, at the Asian supermarket. I immediately took them with me because I had wanted to prepare a Thai “Pad Kapi Sator” (ผัดกะปิสะตอ) for quite some time. A stir-fry dish with pork and stink beans that are stir-fried together with shrimp paste and other spices.
This dish is typical of the southern Thai islands Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan. There it is also called “Pad Khoey Sator” (ผัดเคยสะตอ), where “Khoey” can be translated as “krill” and thus refers to shrimp paste made from saltwater shrimp, which makes sense on an island.
The taste of the dish is very intense due to the large amount of shrimp paste and may not be to everyone’s liking. But I found it so delicious that I want to share the recipe with you. You can maybe start with a little less paste and see how you like it best.
Ingredients for two servings
- 350g (12.3 oz) fatty pork (e.g. neck)
- 100g (3.5 oz) stink beans
- 1-2 dried chili
- 4-5 Thai chilis
- one bulb Chinese garlic
- one shallot
- ¼ tsp coarse sea salt
- 2-3 tbsp shrimp paste
- 80ml water
- 1/2 tsp palm sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 3-4 tbsp water
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Preparation
First peel the shallot and the Chinese garlic and roughly chop both. Then remove the fresh Thai chilis from their stems and cut them into small pieces. Finally, cut the dried chilis into pieces. Then put a pinch of coarse sea salt in a large mortar and gradually pound the ingredients just mentioned in reverse order into a coarse paste.
Next, cut the meat into small, relatively flat pieces and sear them with plenty of vegetable oil in a wok or a high pan. As soon as the meat has completely changed color, add the paste from the mortar as well as the shrimp paste and stir-fry both together with the meat. When the two pastes smell or your eyes burn, deglaze the whole thing with a little water.
Now add the stink beans, a little palm sugar and fish sauce, mix everything well together, then reduce the heat a little and let the Pad Kapi Sator simmer until the meat is cooked through and the stink beans have become soft, although the latter will always remain a bit harder than green beans, for example, and should actually still have a bit of bite.
Finally, cut two kaffir lime leaves into very thin strips and put them over the finished Pad Kapi Sator. Then distribute everything on plates and serve steaming hot together with jasmine rice.
