I had just ground 7 1/4 lbs of beef, and after foodsavering 6 lbs of it, I figured that I'd do something with what was left. I remembered somebody on one of these daily dinner posts mentioning Thai basil beef, which made my mouth water when I read that! So, I made some tonight! This was the type made with ground, rather than sliced beef . The beef I ground was very low in fat - some london broil I got on sale, and almost all the fat was removed, which is unusual. It doesn't brown as easily with little fat, so I used my cast iron wok, well heated, with some coconut oil added and swirled around, then I crumbled the meat in gradually, which allowed the meat to get some char on it, instead of just steaming. Then, when totally browned, I made a well, added a little more coconut oil (the meat sucked up almost all of the original oil), then added 10 frozen red Thai peppers, sliced thin, and 6 large cloves of garlic, minced, and cooked about 30 sec. Then I added 2 tb fish sauce, and a tb of thick Thai soy sauce (the stuff with molasses), plus a tb of palm sugar, and stirred the meat in to mix with the seasonings. Here, since I was the only one eating it, I removed 2/3 of it for leftovers, then tossed in about 1/2 c Thai basil leaves, and that was it! Served on the rice/millet mix, described below. On the side, I had some SF asparagus, with some nam prik pao.
Years ago, I weaned myself off of eating plain jasmine rice with all that Thai food I made. I'd buy 25 lb bags at the Asian market, and that was almost entirely for just me! Brown jasmine and basmati don't have the flavors - that aroma is covered by other flavors. Most whole grains I tried it with did the same, until I tried millet, which is a sort of neutral flavored grain, and that lets the flavor of the jasmine rice come through. Takes a little longer to cook, but not much, so I soak it a little, while preparing other things, then combine the rinsed rice with the millet - 1 part rice to 2 parts millet, and 1 1/2 c water per cup of mix. I simmer for 20 min, maybe a little longer, then let sit with the lid on, until serving. Cooks up sticky, like plain jasmine rice.
This time I made a batch of coconut rice/millet, and tied a little batch of frozen lemongrass greens (saved from the harvest), to add some flavor.