Green Curry with Beef & Eggplant

Click to Enlarge	Green Curry with Beef & Eggplant Thailand
	Serves Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	2 main ** 3/4 hr Most		A fiery curry with plenty of beef and eggplant flavor. Seen Note-3 about hotness. This dish can be made well ahead up to adding the chili strips and basil leaves.

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Thai Basil Leaves
Beef lean
Eggplant Japanese (1)
Green Bell Pepper
Chili hot (2)
Oil
Green Curry Paste (3)
Coconut Milk
Fish Sauce

Prep

Separate the BASIL LEAVES from the stems and start them soaking in a bowl of cold water. This will help keep them green and attractive when added to the curry.
Cut BEEF into 1/4" thick medalions about 1" x 2". Note: to keep the curry a nice color bring some water to a boil, put in the beef medalions and bring back to a boil. Strain and rinse off the crud.
Cut EGGPLANT into 1/4" thick slices and keep in water with a little lemon juice or citric acid. Cut the BELL PEPPER into narrow strips about 1-1/2" long and mix with Eggplant.
Cut HOT CHILI into narrow strips.

Run

In a large sauté pan heat OIL and fry GREEN CURRY PASTE gently until completely blended with the oil and fragrent but not browned.
Stir in the Beef, then stir in COCONUT MILK and bring back to a boil.
Stir in FISH SAUCE and Eggplant mix. Bring back to a boil and simmer until eggplant is tender but not mushy.
Stir in the Chili strips and turn off the heat. Drain Basil Leaves and stir them in, then serve immediately with plenty of steamed Jasmine rice.

NOTES:

Eggplant: If you have the golfball size Thai green eggplants make this 1/3 Thai and the rest Japanese (or Indian, Chinese or Italian) eggplants. Cut the Thai into smaller 1/4" thick pieces as they stay firmer. Do not peel any eggplant.
Chilis: Serranos are good here, but if you want less hot you can use Fresnos cored before slicing. See our Chili Page for more information.
Green Curry Paste: three tablespoons makes a properly firey dish. If you are uncertain you may wish to use just two tablespoons the first time you make this. Caution: green curry pastes vary greatly in quality and hotness. This recipe presumes our Green Curry Paste formula which is pretty hot.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch
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