Thai Basil Pork Stir-Fry

Ingredients

• 500 g pork mince
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 30 g fresh Thai basil or regular basil, roughly torn
• 2 x 250g pre-cooked jasmine rice pouches
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• Pickled cucumber, to serve

Method

1. Stir the oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy and sugar together in a small bowl. That's your sauce — set it by the hob, because once the wok is hot you won't have time to fetch anything.
2. Season the pork mince with a good pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. The salt has to go on the meat, not the finished dish — it draws moisture out so the pork actually crisps.
3. Get a wok or large heavy frying pan screaming hot over maximum heat — you want it almost smoking. Add the oil, swirl, then add the pork in one layer and don't touch it. If your wok is on the smaller side, do this in two batches; crowd the pan and the pork steams in its own water instead of crisping.
4. Leave it for 2–3 minutes until the underside is properly browned and crispy in patches. Break it up and stir-fry for 2 more minutes until cooked through and the edges are dark and crunchy.
5. Add the garlic and chillies and stir-fry for just 30 seconds, until fragrant and pale gold. Don't burn the garlic — at this heat it goes from sweet to bitter in seconds, and bitter garlic ruins the whole dish.
6. Pour the sauce down the sides of the wok so it hits the hot metal and sizzles. Toss for 20–30 seconds until every shred of pork is glossy and coated. Taste a piece — most of the salt is coming from the fish sauce and soy, but adjust now if it needs a final pinch. Heat the rice pouches per the pack.
7. Pull the wok off the heat. Toss through the spring onions and Thai basil — the residual heat should just wilt the leaves and release that aniseed perfume. Don't put it back on the flame or the basil blackens.
8. Tip the jasmine rice into bowls, pile the glossy pork on top, scatter any stray basil leaves, and tuck a lime wedge alongside each. A squeeze of lime over the pork at the table cuts the salt and lifts everything you've just built.