Pad Kra Pao with Minced Pork and Fried Egg

Steam 280 g Jasmine rice and keep it hot and fluffy — the wok moves fast, so have the rice ready before you turn on a burner.

Pound Garlic and Bird's eye chillies together in a mortar to a rough, wet paste — some flecks of garlic and chilli still visible, not a smooth purée. If you have no mortar, chop them very fine and crush with the flat of your knife.

⚠ Tip: Pounding ruptures the cells rather than smashing them: you get a sharper, cleaner heat than you do from a food processor.

Stir the sauce together: Thai fish sauce, Oyster sauce, Dark soy sauce and Sugar. Taste it — it should be salty first, then a faint sweetness. Park it by the stove.

Pop the Holy basil leaves off the stems and leave them whole. Discard the stems — they're bitter and stringy.

⚠ Tip: Keep a few leaves back raw: scattering them in at the very end gives a hit of raw anise that frying destroys.

Heat 80 ml Neutral oil in a small pan over medium heat until it's shimmering and deep enough to spoon over the egg. Crack in 2 Eggs and fry it hard until the white puffs up, laces and crisps at the edges while the yolk stays runny, about 1 min 30 sec. Spoon hot oil over the whites as they set. Lift out onto a plate and set aside.

⚠ Tip: Don't salt the egg until it's out of the pan — salt in the oil makes the white spit and the lace sucks up oil instead of crisping.

Heat a wok or wide heavy pan over high heat until it's smoking, then add 2 tbsp Neutral oil and swirl. Add kra pao paste and stir-fry until it smells sharp and fragrant and turns just golden at the edges, about 20 sec — do not let the garlic brown or it goes bitter.

⚠ Tip: Hot wok, cool oil. Breath in the fumes on purpose and you'll be coughing — turn your face away.

Add 300 g Minced pork and break it up with your spatula, spreading it flat against the wok. Let it sit for a beat, then stir-fry hard until no pink remains and the pork starts to fry rather than steam, about 2 min.

⚠ Tip: If the pan is crowded and the pork is giving off water, push it up the sides of the wok and boil the liquid off before you carry on — you want frying, not boiling.

Pour in sauce, toss for a moment so every bit of pork takes the sauce and the pan smells sweet-savoury, about 20 sec. If it looks dry, add a splash of water off the heat; you want it just glistening, not saucy.

Kill the heat. Dump in all the Holy basil and toss just until the leaves wilt against the hot pork, about 10 sec — they should still be bright green, not olive.

Pile the steamed jasmine rice onto plates, spoon the pork and basil over it, and slide a fried egg onto each one. Serve with Limes wedges to squeeze over at the table.

⚠ Tip: Eat it right now — holy basil goes dull fast, and pad kra pao is a dish of the minute, not a dish to keep.