Serving
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Beef & Eggplant
Laos
Serves
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:		 2 main  
**
1/2 hr
Part		 This is a simple (and simple to make) yet satisfying dish. Using moderate heat chilis and seeding them before chopping makes this dish not at all hot, but spice it up if you like. This is a fairly dry recipe so it's a good dish to serve along side something with sauce, but it can easily stand on its own.





 10
12
2
3
2
2
20 		oz
oz
cl

T
T
Beef, lean (1)
Eggplant (2)
Garlic
Chillis (3)
Fish Sauce
Oil
Thai Basil Leaves
    Prep
  1. Dice BEEF, about 1/4 inch for roast or stew meat.
  2. Slice EGGPLANT about 3/8 inch thick and if over 1 inch cut into half moons. Hold in cold water with a little citric acid added to prevent discoloration.
  3. Chop GARLIC fine.
  4. Seed CHILIS and chop small.
  5. Pull BASIL LEAVES from stems and put them in a bowl of cold water to soak.
    6. Run
  6. In a wok or roomy sauté pan heat Oil and fry Garlic until the first trace of color, then stir in Chilis and fry stirring for another minute or so.
  7. Add the Beef and fry stirring over high flame until it has lost all its raw color, Cut small it'll probably exude a lot of liquid, so fry stirring until it's all evaporated.
  8. Stir in the Eggplant and Fish Sauce. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring just a couple of times until eggplant is just tender - don't overdo it.
  9. Drain Basil Leave and quickly stir them in. Turn off heat and serve immediately with plenty of jasmine rice.
NOTES:
  1. Beef:   In Southeast Asia this would probably be made from a worn out water buffalo, so you needn't splurge on costly tender cuts, but dice it smaller the tougher the beef is.
  2. Eggplant:   Green Thai eggplants would be goo, but if you don't have those Indian or any of the long narrow varieties will do fine.
  3. Chilis:   Fresnos are my chilis of choice, but others, both red and green, can be used. See my Chili Page for more information.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch
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