Spicy Oyster Mushrooms with Sweet Basil
Pad Hed Nang Rom
Oyster mushrooms stir-fried with heavy garlic, hot chili, and basil
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Serves
- 4
- Heat
- very hot
This is a short-ingredient-list dish that leans entirely on technique: garlic and a generous handful of hot chili, roughly ground so the pieces stay coarse, fried low and slow until fragrant before anything else goes into the pan. Big, meaty pieces of oyster mushroom soak up that garlicky, spicy oil as they cook down, needing just enough water along the way to keep a thin sauce rather than drying out. Basil stirred in at the very end wilts gently in the pan's own heat, finishing the dish without needing much else.
Ingredients
- 3-4 cups Oyster mushroom (cut into chunky, irregular bite-sized pieces)
- 1 1/3 cups Thai sweet basil (leaves and flower tops)
- 8 Garlic, large cloves (roughly ground)
- 9 Thai hot chilies (roughly ground with the garlic)
- 2 3/4 tablespoons Oyster sauce
- 1 1/3 teaspoons Light soy sauce
- 1 1/3 teaspoons Sugar
Directions
- Cut the mushrooms into chunky, irregular bite-sized pieces. Roughly grind the garlic and chili together in a mortar and pestle so you still have coarse, irregular pieces.
- Heat oil in a wok over low heat and fry the garlic and chili slowly for about a minute, until fragrant but not browned.
- Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir together and cook until the sugar melts and the sauce is hot and bubbly.
- Add the mushrooms and stir to coat evenly. The pan will look a little dry at first — keep the heat low and keep stirring for about 2 minutes.
- When the pan looks close to burning, add a splash of water and stir it in. Continue stir-frying for another 2 minutes or so, until the mushrooms have softened, adding a few more drops of water as needed to keep a little sauce in the pan.
- Turn off the heat, add the basil, and toss together as the pan cools and the basil wilts.
- Serve immediately with steamed rice, garnished with a few extra basil tops.
Notes
Grind the garlic and chili coarsely rather than into a smooth paste — the irregular pieces fry up with more texture and a punchier bite than a fine paste would.
Substitutions
Any mushroom works here — shiitake, cremini, or a mix, just cut into similarly chunky pieces. Reduce the chili count significantly if a milder dish is wanted; the dish is meant to be quite spicy as written.