Whenever I make Thai curry, I always end up with leftover sprigs of thai basil because my local farmers market sells them pre-packed in large bundles. Similarly, my local Asian supermarket also sells them prepacked in cellophane wrapped packets, which initially look deceivingly small, but when opened, expands to quite a bit. So with the leftover basil, I like to chop them up and make these little tasty Thai-inspired meat patties. They make a fantastic appetizer and are easy to put together.
Needless to say, even though my recipe says 1/2 cup chopped basil leaves, you can use as little as a 1/4 cup if that's all you have. I've used 1/4 cup in the past and the Thai basil flavor is still strongly present. Also, if you are allergic to eggs like my sister, you can leave out the egg and the patties will still hold together and not fall apart. (The pictures below are from a batch I made without the egg for my sister.)
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| Add all ingredients to a bowl |
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| Mix very well |
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| Form patties |
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| Pan fry until brown and cooked through |
P.S. If you are wondering about the orange dots in the picture, it's cuz I used the mini food processor earlier to chop up some carrots for another recipe, and didn't bother to rinse out the food processor before processing the cabbage. So just ignore the orange dots.. there are no carrots in this recipe
Yields 4 servings (about 16-18 patties)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb lean ground pork
- ¾ c finely chopped cabbage (2 to 3 cabbage leaves)
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ½ c chopped thai basil (leaves from about 6 to 7 large sprigs of basil)
- 2 T chopped lemongrass
- 1 t soy sauce
- 1 t salt
- 1 t mirin
- ½ t ground black pepper
- 3 T cornstarch
- 2 T chopped dried onions
- 3 T water
- 1 egg (you can omit this if you are allergic to eggs and the patties will still hold together)
- 1 T oil for pan frying
Procedures:
1. To finely chop the cabbage and basil, I used a mini food processor, but you can certainly hand chop these too since it is not a large quantity.
2. Place all the ingredients (except the oil) together in a bowl and mix well with your hands for about 5 minutes.
3. Form the meat mixture into golf ball sized balls and flatten slightly.
4. Place patties on an oiled pan, and pan fry on each side using medium heat until browned and cooked through. (about 5 to 6 minutes on each side)
5. Serve warm with a sweet chili dipping sauce (I like the commercially available Mae Ploy or Dragonfly brand of sweet chili dipping sauce).