What's for Dinner? Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Eggplant!

We have more and more veggies sprouting up every day in our garden.  My mission for tonight: use the Japanese (Ichiban) eggplants that we have.  I have to say, I am usually not a huge fan of eggplant, but I do like it in Asian dishes for some reason (or fried, but again, what ISN'T better fried?).  I thought a curry dish sounded just about right.  This recipe turned out great (mine was a bit too salty, but I adapted the recipe to fix that issue).  It had amazing flavor and if you are a fan of Thai food...you have to give this a try (just make sure you add no extra salt to anything).  Definitely a keeper.  It isn't too spicy, even with the red curry paste, so if you want more heat, add some Sriracha hot sauce or garlic chili paste.  Enjoy!

Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Eggplant

Serves 4-6

• 1 ½ tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 1 (14-ounce) can lite coconut milk
• 3 TBSP Thai red curry paste
• 1 cup low sodium chicken stock (important to use low sodium here…there are several other ingredients that have a high salt content)
• 3 TBSP fish sauce (don’t be turned off by the smell, it tastes so much different)
• 1 TBSP lemongrass paste (found in herb section of produce dept)
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, stalked and cut into strips, optional (these can be hard to find, but they do sell bottled lime leaves in the Asian section…use about a TBSP of these already shredded leaves)
• 1 inch piece ginger, cut in half
• ½ tsp turmeric (if you don’t have this spice, just leave it out)
• 1 pound chicken cutlets, sliced into thin strips
• 3 Japanese eggplants (the purple ones that are about 10-inches long), cut in half and then sliced (if you can’t find these, use a regular eggplant and dice it up in 1-inch cubes)
• 1 ½ cups green beans, cut in half
• ½ can baby corn, cut in half
• ½ can sliced bamboo shoots (I like to julienne them, but you definitely don’t have to)
• ½ lime, juiced
• Cilantro, for garnish
• Jasmine rice 

In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil on high and add chicken.  Cook until browned and cooked through.  Reserve to bowl.  In same skillet, reduce heat to medium and add the rest of the oil and the coconut milk and bring to boil. Add curry paste and stir until well combined (with no lumps). Add chicken stock, fish sauce, lemongrass paste, lime leaves (if using), ginger and turmeric. Bring back to a boil and then add the reserved chicken and the rest of the ingredients except lime juice and cilantro. Reduce heat and simmer about 30-45 minutes until the eggplant and beans are tender and the liquid reduces down a bit (the longer you cook it, the better!).

Squeeze lime juice into curry mixture and give a stir.  Spoon curry over hot rice and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.  Enjoy!

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