RECIPE: Thai Curry w/ Chicken and Thai Eggplant

where i work, there is a small open farmers market every week on Tuesday and Friday. they have lots of great cheap produce. every once and a while they have these golf ball sized eggplants labeled simply as "Thai Eggplant". they're very seedy, but the fleshy parts get tender and delicious when you cook them. the open market doesn't always have them, so when ever they do, i buy some.

this is about 2 pounds of Thai eggplants. it kind of looks like mini watermelons to me, but trust me, they taste nothing like watermelon....

a few stalks of Thai basil. looking around at the open market, i noticed one difference between Thai basil and regular basil - the stalks. to me, the leaves look very similar, but looking at the stalks, Thai basil stalks are purple, and regular basil stalks are green. remove leaves from the stalks and set these aside.

some left over carrots - being put to good use! wash, peel and large chop the carrots.

other ingredients include: 2 cans (13.5 oz each) coconut milk, 4 TBSP (or 1/4 cup) of fish sauce, 2 TBSP red Thai curry paste, 4 chicken thighs, chopped into 1 inch pieces.

chop up the eggplants into quarters and set aside.

pour coconut milk into a large pot and bring to a boil. add curry paste, blend, and lower heat to medium. throw in chicken pieces and coat with coconut milk mixture.

when chicken turns white, add in 6 cups of water. then add in remainder of ingredients (EXCEPT basil) and cook until eggplants are very, very soft and curry has thickened.

at the very end of cooking, add in the basil, stir and let simmer for another couple of minutes.

serve this curry over hot rice. enjoy!

p.s. - sorry, no pix of finished product.... b/c i was hungry and forgot.