Thai Basil

Been making a ton of pesto lately since the basil is nice and big.   Since we have a large overgrown plant of Thai Basil I wanted to mix up some super flavors for quick stir fries.

Thai Basil flavor has a more spicy....peppery, intense flavor than the regular Italian Basil.

Pull off all the leaves and into a food processor.  With some olive oil, pulse into small bits.  Not quite a puree'. 

Dump out the chopped leaves into a bowl so you can stir in lime zest and the juice from the same limes.

Taste. 

You looking for super-tart-zingy.

Add a heavy pinch or 3 of kosher salt.

Pack into 4oz (1/4 C) or 8oz (1/2 C) containers or ice cube trays then into freezer bags.

Just a quick note---- lately I've been cooking up ground turkey, pork, beef and freezing them into  quart freezer bags with labels.  It's much easier to pull those out of the freezer and add to dishes we are making at the moment.  Instead of trying to remember ahead to defrost a protein and cooking it for a dish.

Mild or hot peppers, about 1 C, chopped

Onion, about 1 C, chopped

Garlic cloves-3?, peeled and chopped

Sugar  1 Tb

Cornstarch 1 Tb

Chicken broth (or vegetable broth) 1 1/2 C---mix sugar, cornstarch in small bowl or measuring cup, add broth

Fish sauce 1-3 Tb (start with less if your not used to that flavor, or skip it for vegetarian)

1-3 Tb lite soy sauce

Saute the peppers, onion, garlic in oil until softened.  Add about 2 C cooked protein, shrimp, tofu or a cooked veggie like zucchini or eggplant for vegetarian version.  Add the chicken broth mixture and 1/2 C of the Thai Basil Superflavor.  

Add fish sauce and enough soy sauce to suit your taste.  

I probably added 3 Tb lite soy sauce to the finished dish to get the taste up to where it should be.  Below is a tofu version with a lot more heat from hot Chile peppers.