Tom Hibbert is the chef and co-owner of my neighbourhood cafe Good As Gold, in Brockley, south-east London, the place I typically write this column. We frequently chat about lowering meals and packaging waste, and, as Tom says, “I’m attempting actually exhausting to cut back waste within the kitchen, and it’s so exhausting, however we’re slowly making a distinction, saving cash and inventing new dishes.”
Each Friday, he places on a particular each to flex his culinary muscular tissues, and to make use of up surplus produce. Final week, it was one among his favorite Thai dishes, pad kra pao. In addition to a standard model made with minced pork, he additionally makes one with the offcuts from the mushrooms for Tom’s fabulous fry-up, as a result of he believes that mushrooms roast higher when skinned.
Mushroom pores and skin and stalk pad kra pao
Pad kra pao is a standard Thai stir-fry made with fragrant holy basil. If you happen to can’t pay money for any, it’s additionally scrumptious made with Thai basil and even common basil, at a push. No matter you utilize, be sure to use quite a bit so the dish has a robust aniseed flavour all through.
At Good As Gold, Tom Hibbert makes it by mincing the kitchen’s mushroom trimmings, then frying them with aromatics earlier than stuffing them into an enormous sub roll with crisp leaves, cucumber, carrot and sesame seeds, then topping these with a crisp fried egg for additional authenticity.
Serves 2
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 shallot, peeled and finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2-3 birds eye chillies, to style
170g mushroom stalks and skins (and/or complete mushrooms and different leftover vegetable equivalent to peppers, inexperienced beans and spring onions), minced
½ tsp unrefined sugar
1 tbsp darkish soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce (common or vegan)
1 tsp rice, white-wine or cider vinegar
3 massive sprigs Thai holy basil (or Thai basil or common basil)
To serve (non-compulsory)
Rice or a brioche roll, chopped child gem lettuce, cucumber ribbons, carrot matchsticks, sesame, sriracha and a crisp fried egg
Put the oil in a wok or frying pan over a medium-high warmth. When sizzling, add the sliced shallot, garlic and hen’s eye chillies, and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
Flip up the warmth and add the minced mushroom stalks and skins and stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes till caramelised.
Add the unrefined sugar, soy and fish sauces, and the vinegar, then stir-fry till absorbed.
Deglaze the pan with a tablespoon of water, scraping all of the tasty bits from the underside of the pan, then take off the warmth and stir in the entire holy basil leaves and finely chopped stalks, and season to style.
Serve with rice or in a brioche roll topped with chopped little gem, cucumber, carrots, sesame seeds, crispy shallots, coriander, sriracha and a crispy fried egg.