Phat Phrik King (Sweet Dry Curry of Pork and Long Beans)

This recipe is adapted from Leela Punyaratabandhu’s excellent 2014 book, Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes from the Thai Home Kitchen, which we reviewed in November 2020. “When done correctly, this dish is one of the most delicious classic Thai dishes ever,” wrote Punyaratabandu in her headnote. Her recipe did not disappoint.

In the recipe as published in her book, Punyaratabandhu refers to the makrut lime leaf garnish as “optional but highly recommended.” We felt the garnish added a gorgeous perfume we’d hate to lose. The original recipe also called for optional dried shrimp, which the author has you grind until flaky in a mini-chopper or mortar.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon store-bought red Thai curry paste

8 ounces pork shoulder, sliced against the grain into diagonal, bite-sized pieces

2 teaspoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons packed grated palm sugar, or 2 tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

8 ounces long beans or green beans, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

4 fresh makrut lime leaves, central vein cut out and cut lengthwise into very thin strips (optional but highly recommended)

Instructions

1. Heat a wok or a 14-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil and curry paste and stir to break up the paste. When the paste is fragrant, after about 2 minutes, add the pork, fish sauce, sugar and stock and stir well. Turn up the heat to high and stir until the pork is almost cooked through and most of the moisture has evaporated, about 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add the beans and continue to stir just until the pork is fully cooked and the moisture has evaporated, about 5 minutes. This dish is not supposed to be saucy. When it looks like a dry curry that glistens with deep orange oil, you know it is done. Also, you want the beans to be tender-crisp when the dish is served, so do not cook them until they are soft and mushy. Transfer to a platter, add the makrut lime leaves, and serve immediately.

Recipe notes

• The original recipe also called for optional dried shrimp, which the author has you grind until flaky in a mini-chopper or mortar. We did that (those hard little shrimp made quite a racket in the mini-chopper!), but Punyaratabandu’s instructions failed to mention when to add them in the instructions, and we forgot all about them until we did the dishes and found the hapless ground shrimp. Since we did not test the recipe with them, and Punyaratabandu did not answer our questions about the book when we contacted her, we have left them out.)

• The original recipe called for sodium-free chicken stock, home-made or store-bought. We substituted the much easier-to-find low-sodium broth and had no problem with the salt level.

• We tested the recipe with green beans rather than long beans.