Here's a very quick and easy Thai stir fried dish. It's not really a spicy dish, but it is spicy with ginger…if you don't like ginger, you probably won't like this!

Moo Pad Prik King – Pork fried with chilies and ginger

• ½ lb of pork loin (or tenderloin, or any other relatively lean and "white meat" cut of pork) sliced into thin bite sized pieces
• ½ cup of peeled and julienned ginger. Cut the ginger into matchstick sized pieces. Use young ginger if you can. The older ginger gets, the stronger and spicier it gets as well. Steer clear of withered and ancient looking specimens, choosing instead very firm and shiny chunks newly out of the field
• ½ a medium white onion, cut into thin wedges, not rings. (Trim both ends from an onion, cut it in half and peel the skin and then turn the onion so that the layers are facing you as you cut straight across into thin wedges)
• 4 or 5 large medium spicy green or red chilies, sliced on an angle into thin inch long slices. Use the big ones, bigger and fatter than your finger.
• 3 or 4 green onions, sliced into 1 inch slices
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, smashed flat with the side of your knife, but not chopped
• 1 Tbls of oyster sauce
• 1 Tbls of fish sauce (start with one and taste for saltiness and savoriness)
• 1/2 Tbls of soy sauce
• 1-2 tsps of sugar (start with one and taste for sweetness)
• MSG, a pinch (optional)

• Oil for stir frying

East steps for stir frying

• In a hot wok over medium high heat, heat about 2 Tbls of vegetable oil briefly and when hot, toss in the cloves of garlic. Heat the garlic cloves until fragrant and golden brown, about 20 seconds.
• Immediately add in the pork slices, and stir fry for about 2 minutes, or until just cooked through.
• Add in the onion, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and MSG (if using) and stir fry for another minute or so, or until the onion has softened. If things are looking too dry, you can add a ¼ cup of water or so.
• Add in the ginger and chilies and stir to mix well and to just heat the ginger.
• Add in the green onion, remove from the heat and taste for seasoning. Add more sugar or fish sauce if needed. It is very important that you taste and balance the seasonings. Things like fish sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce can vary considerably in their relative potencies between different brands.

Serve with steamed rice for a great and pretty easy one dish meal – or serve with other Thai dishes as a part of a larger Thai style meal.

This dish is not all that spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you are better off still adding the chilies (they are important for the taste and balance of the dish) and then simply picking around them as you eat.