Basil Eggplant

Hello Full Belly Friends,

I have been a Full Belly CSA member for several years now and have to admit that each summer I dreaded the onslaught of eggplant.  Try as I might, I couldn’t find any recipes that my family or I liked, so I did the best I could barbecuing slices of eggplant and slipping it into my sandwiches or roasting it and blending it into traditional hummus so the chickpeas would hide the flavor and texture.  But I recently found a recipe in the SF Chronicle (sourced from ThaiTable.com) and it changed my eggplant world!  Now I look forward to seeing eggplant in my box and don’t mind that I’m the only one in my family who’ll eat it.  Check it out (photo is awful, but recipe is great - and it uses several items from this week’s box) and share it on your website if you want: http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/basil-eggplant

Peace,

Wendy

2 chili peppers
2 eggplants
2 tablespoons fish sauce - For a vegetarian dish, substitute soy sauce or salt for fish sauce.
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 tablespoon sugar
1 bunch Thai basil, leaves picked from the stem. Italian basil can substitute but it will be a different taste
1 tablespoon cooking oil

Slice the eggplants into irregular shapes for easy turning in the pan. When it is sliced into a small disk, it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan and makes it difficult to flip or turn.
Chop garlic and slice chili peppers. Pick the leaves from the stem of the Thai basil.
Heat a pan or wok over high or medium high. Add oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir until the garlic turn golden brown. Add eggplant and stir. Add a cup of water and cover the pan or wok with a lid. Keep the lid close until the eggplant is cooked. It should take about 5-7 minutes before the eggplant is done. The eggplant turns from white to translucent when it is done. Almost all of the water should have been evaporated at this point. If the eggplant is still not cooked, add a little bit more water and keep lid closed until the eggplant is ready. Add fish sauce and sugar and stir. Add Thai basil and quickly stir to heat the basil, so that it retains it color. Turn off heat immediately.
Serve hot with rice.