Shrimp Pad-Prik-Khing

Let’s just say it right Pad-Prik-Khing.  Literally, pad meaning stir-fry; prik meaning chili; and khing meaning ginger.  It sounds wired, right?  When this dish has nothing to do with ginger at all!  And please don’t ask me why.  It’s been given this name for decades, before I was born!  I used to ask my dad the same question, and guessed what, he didn’t know either!   But I like to make up story, just for fun.  I think this dish used to add ginger instead of kaffir lime leaf.  And for some reasons, someone might have changed the recipe by using kaffir lime leaf instead of ginger and it was a hit and people love it….end of the story! 

Pad prik khing is another popular Thai dish and is so easy to make using red chili paste for its spicy with a distinctive flavorand taste of kaffir lime leaves that gives this dish such a unique and outstanding of all time.  Originally, this dish only uses green bean, with meat of your choice including seafood, but I’ve added some carrots and red bell pepper just to give it more colorful and fun to eat.  When cooking this dish, it usually uses a rather high heat than low.  So, quick sauté is required. And that mean all the ingredients need to be ready to add in while cooking.   Let’s have some fun.

What you need:

1 ½ lb fresh shrimp deveined

1 cup green beans cut about 1-inch long

1 cup carrots cut 1-inch long

½ cup red bell pepper julienned

2 tbsp Red curry paste

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp (5 leaves) kaffir lime leaves finely julienned

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

¼ cup water

How to:

- Use a sauté pan or a wok on the medium-high heat and add vegetable oil into it

- Stir in red curry paste until it fragrant, about 3-4 minutes

- Add shrimp and sauté until it cooks through

- Add green beans and carrot follow by sugar and fish sauce for seasoning and add water immediately to keep it moist and help the cooking process go quickly for the beans and carrot, about 5 minutes.  If it becomes too dry, add a little bit more water but not too much.

- Add kaffir lime leaves and sauté for another 20 seconds, and you done!

Serve over jasmine white or brown rice as you desired. 

*hint – serve with poached egg on top to make it more delish!

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