Thai Pesto

This recipe is a fleshed out version of something I heard on The Splendid Table when a caller was asking about what to do with all of her Thai basil she had growing in the garden. She mentioned that she had made a Thai pesto with it and gave the ingredients that she had used: Thai basil, coconut oil, cashews and some Thai chilies in one batch.  The host got very excited and suggested many uses for the pesto (though nothing else for the basil) and I got very excited and thought "Dinner tonight".

So, here is what I came up with based on the above mentioned ingredients. I use a stone mortar and pestle for making pesto because I think it gives better flavor to the herbs when they are mashed not cut. That said, I am a snob and I'm sure cutting in the food processor works just fine.

4 cups Thai basil (longer, skinnier leaf than genovese or sweet basil. Can be found at Asian groceries)
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons of raw cashews

Strip the leaves from the stems of the basil and mash or run through the food processor until you've got a smooth paste. (I had to do batches because my mortar, while large, only holds about 2 cups of leaves.)

To this add:
1/3 cup of coconut oil, best if in liquid state.
2 Tablespoons of fish sauce
1 Tablespoon of lime juice
1/4 teaspoon (minimum, I added more like 2 Tablespoons) of sriracha sauce. Don't skip this, it rounds out the flavor, but if you don't love spicy things, stick to the minimum.

Mix well until smooth. Adjust seasonings to your taste. You may need to add a bit of salt or more fish sauce.

Cook your rice noodles in your preferred way. I used the wide noodles like the ones for Pad Thai. If you want meat or tofu, use a bit of the pesto as a marinade to give extra flavor. Thinly slice some raw carrots and red bell peppers and toss all of this together with the pesto. Easy-peasy, tasty dinner in 15 minutes. Even if you're hand mashing everything!