Rinse the strip of ribs and cut between each bone.
Place ribs in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil. Cook the ribs for about 30 to 40 minutes. Use a large spoon and skim off any foam. You are making a basic pork broth and the ribs will be nice and tender.
While the ribs are cooking, prep the kaffir lime leaves, rinse them, makes sure all are tender, and just roughly tear them up.
Pull the basil leaves from the stems, rinse, and squeeze out the excess water.
When the ribs have cooked 30-40 minutes and are good and tender, you can turn them off. Place another pot on the stove, add the red chili paste and shrimp paste.
Now ladle in some of the pork broth from the cooked ribs, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups.
Stir and mash the pastes into the broth until you get a nice smooth curry. There, you just made a standard red Thai curry.
Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the ribs from the first pot and place into the curry.
Stir the ribs into the curry, and turn the heat on to bring to a low boil.
Add the Thai basil.
Stir and let the basil completely wilt and mix into the curry.
Add the kaffir lime leaves.
Stir the lime leaves in, turn off the heat, and pour into a large serving dish, serve family style with plenty of rice.