Recipe Sunday: Spicy Thai Basil Sauce

“I found Thai basil, I found Thai basil!” my husband happily yelled when he walked through the door.

“Whut?” I asked looking up from the computer.

“I found it, I finally found it,” he said.

And, indeed, he finally had.

Thai basil doesn’t seem that exotic an ingredient, but we’ve never seen it. We’ve checked grocery stores and health food co-ops, but we’ve just never been able to get our hands on it. So suddenly having a bunch of the slightly peppery basil to play with, felt a little daunting.

Then – of course – I fell prey to “Launie hoarding.” It had taken years and years of searching, so of course I wanted to make something spectacular with it. Which meant that I trimmed off the ends, and stuck it in a jar where it sat for two weeks.

My husband was just as “hoard-ish.”

“We need to do something really special with it,” he said.

“I know, but what? Thai chicken? In a soup? What about a noodle dish?” I suggested.

“Any of those sound good,” he said.

Which should have given me direction, but instead made me more nervous about what to do with the precious bunch of herbs.

So, there it sat.

Finally, I said “screw it” and combined it with some things in the fridge and the vegetable bowl to create a spicy sauce.

Which was a wise decision. Instead of blowing the whole batch on one dish, we’ve been eating the sauce on vegetable wraps, chicken, beef, rice and noodles. It’s been the bedrock of our meals for the last few days because it’s sweet, but salty, citrusy but hot.

If you only have sweet basil to play with, add some black pepper and a little fennel to mimic the taste.

Spicy Thai Basil Sauce

Thai-basil-sizedMakes 1 cup of sauce.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Thai basil
  • ½ cup red bell pepper, roughly chopped
  • 1 small jalapeno, roughly chopped
  • 1 large scallion (white and green parts), roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process to desired texture.

Good-vert(Photos by Launie K.)

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *