I saw fresh Thai Basil at the Asian supermarket this week and have been craving it for a long time. We are all eggplant lovers in our family and we always have red peppers on hand. I browsed through several recipes in Pinterest, always searching for the simplest one and the one from Thai Table is closest to what I usually do at home with my other veggies at home ! I have always used minced garlic, fish sauce and sugar when I stir fry Chinese veggies and love the Unami flavor that is imparted by combining those trio of flavors. I can only imagine how delicious it would be with the addition of fresh Thai basil! Here is my recipe adapted from Thai Table:
Ingredients
7 Japanese eggplants cut into bite size pieces
2 red peppers cut into bite size pieces
4 tablespoons fish sauce
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoon sugar
40 pcs leaves picked from the stem of Thai Basil (roughly chopped about half of it and end tither half whole)
1/4 cup water
6 tablespoon oil (DIVIDED)
1tbsp soy sauce or soy paste
Optional: Top with crushed peanuts!
Steps
1- Heat up 4 tbsp oil on pan for 1-2 minutes.
2- Dump in the eggplant and stir fry for about 2 minutes.
3- Pour in 1/4 cup water and put lid on the pan and let it cook until desired tenderness–we let it steam up in there for 10 minutes. Transfer to plate for later.
4- Put remaining 3 tbsp oil and heat up the garlic for 1-2 minutes.
5- Add red peppers and stir fry for about 3 minutes (we like ours slightly crunchy).
6- Add in eggplant that was set aside and add the fish sauce and sugar.
7- Stir in basil and cook for 1 minute and it’s done!
Enjoy with white rice or rice of your choice!