The sauce is a standard Thai thing, it seems. You see it in a lot of menus: you open it up and you got the green and red curries section, the fried noodles section, the fried rice section, and you also got the 'with basil and chilli' section. But it's usually fish, pork and stuff like that. I finally had a chance to try it in a restaurant in Krabi, which was a kind of joint Thai/farang job, run by a Thai woman and her Aussie husband. There were a lot of burgers and meaty things on their menu, but there was a tidy veggie section too which had all the favourites I listed above, prepared with tofu or mixed vegetables. At last! A chance to try the basil and chilli sauce. I'd been waiting a while. I probably first noticed it on a menu in Bangkok or somewhere like that, but didn't pay it too much attention; however, it began to intrigue me when I understood (from reading menus in different parts of the country) that this was a distinctive and well-known style of dish. I wanted to try it - find out what it was all about. So.... I got the chance in Krabi. It probably wasn't the best prepared basil and chilli sauce in Thailand - I say that because the pad Thai and green curry I tried certainly weren't. But they weren't bad either, by any means. Backpacker standard, I would say: big portions made with fresh ingredients, served in a comfortable setting with books, internet, travel information and pleasant staff, but maybe not so much attention paid to the actual quality of the preparation. There are lots of places like that, not only in Thailand, and they serve a valuable purpose. Like many people, I first went there so I could use the free wifi.
Even though I discovered shortly after my first visit that I could access the free wifi by stacking up the coffee table and armchair by the open window in my hotel room and angling my notebook so the antenna faced the corner, just round which the restaurant was located, I still went back a couple of times for lunch.
Here's how to do the recipe... you might want to substitute some other combination of ingredients for the tofu and broccoli. That's entirely up to you. The sauce and the seasoning are what it's all about, though I did find that tofu and broccoli went rather well with it.
This lot will do three or four people if you serve it with rice or noodles.
400-500g of broccoli
About 300g of tofu
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of flour
2 or 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
A few dried red chillies
A few sprigs of basil
Salt
Oil
Cut the tofu into cubes and the broccoli into florets. If there's a lot of stalk on the broccoli, don't throw it away. Cut it up and use it in the dish. Chop the garlic roughly and fry it and the broccoli for a couple of minutes. Cover with hot water and add the tofu, soy sauce and chillis (crush the chillies a little). Bring to the boil and add a little salt. Reduce the heat and simmer with a lid on the pan until the broccoli is soft enough to stick a fork in but still fairly crisp (about four or five minutes). Mix the flour into a paste with half a cup of cold water and stir into the cooking liquid. Raise the heat and stir until the sauce thickens and that's it about ready. Stir in the chopped basil and serve with steamed rice or noodles.