![\"\"](\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/3abb5-photo2bsat-21.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nI don\u2019t know why that fried egg looks like it has no yolk.\u00a0It definitely had one, because before I took this picture, I punctured it with that spoon. I think this is my punishment for not taking a proper photograph: my iPhone ate the yolk. Anyway, please imagine that it\u2019s there. And while you\u2019re at it, imagine that I\u2019m totally, totally, 100% prepared to have a baby. Go on.<\/p>\n
I found out a few weeks ago that I\u2019m anemic, which at least partly explained why I had nearly dozed off at a stoplight a couple of times and once cried when I couldn\u2019t get a kitchen drawer to open. \u00a0My doctor prescribed iron supplements and plenty of beef. \u00a0The good, grass-fed kind<\/i>, he said.\u00a0It\u2019<\/span>s a very nice thing to be ordered by one<\/span>\u2019s physician to eat more meat, and I was excited about it – except that, because I was busy dozing off at stoplights, I couldn<\/span>\u2019t think of what to eat. \u00a0A person can only go so far with hamburgers and steak<\/span>. \u00a0That was when I called up <\/span>Matthew<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0and he told me to make a Thai dish: stir-fried ground beef with chiles and basil, served on a bed of rice, with a fried egg.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve made it four times since, and one of those times was in Oklahoma, for my mother and cousins, so they can vouch for it. \u00a0In fact, maybe this will tell you something. \u00a0It<\/span>\u2019s thunderstorm season in Oklahoma, an annual event that I spent my entire childhood dreading, and a giant hailstorm<\/span>\u00a0hit that night, as we were finishing our meal. \u00a0The windows along the back of the house began to shatter, and as we ran to the closets for cover, you could hear the wind screaming through the rooms. B<\/span>ut the Thai beef was tasty enough that, after we had come out of hiding, <\/span>my cousin Jason hovered over the wok, tempted to dip in for seconds, even though the leftovers shimmered with tiny shards of glass. \u00a0It<\/span>\u2019s a very good recipe.<\/p>\n The original version of it comes from David Thompson<\/span>\u2019s excellent book Thai Street Food<\/a>, and as Thai street foods go, he says, it<\/span>\u2019s fairly new – maybe only fifty years old. \u00a0He recommends using as many chiles as you can handle, because the dish is meant to be spicy. As he explains, the “supple richness” of the fried egg is meant to offset the heat. \u00a0What I like about it, other than the fact that it<\/span>\u2019s fragrant and bright and hot, is that it<\/span>\u2019s nearly instant. \u00a0You can make it in less than ten minutes, with ingredients that you might well have lying around. \u00a0The original recipe calls for holy basil<\/a>, but I used regular basil. \u00a0I used beef, but Matthew likes pork. \u00a0And if you can<\/span>\u2019t find Thai chiles, you could easily substitute serranos. \u00a0The important part is hard to mess up, and that<\/span>\u2019s chewy, saucy union of rice, egg yolk, and beef.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n