Thai Basil Eggplant (Brinjal)

Basil is my favourite herb and maybe a reason I love Thai food so much. The soups, curries and stir fries taste amazingly different with just few handful of sweet basil. This recipe is super easy and cooks in very little time. So lets get started with the recipe ...

Ingredients
- 3-4 Chinese Eggplant (Brinjal)( long and slender)
- 1-2 Chili peppers ( add per your taste)
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, washed and roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp thick Soya sauce or paste
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- 1/2 cup water

Steps
1. Wash your eggplants and chop it in to roughly 1 inch cubes
2. In a frying pan, heat the oil
3. Add garlic and chili peppers and cook for a minute or so until garlic turns golden
4. Now add eggplant to the fragrant garlic oil, add water, mix it and cover the pan with a lid.
5. Stir every few minutes and continue cooking for 5-8 minutes until eggplant is cooked and looks translucent.
6. Now open the lid, add salt, sugar and soy sauce.
7. Stir it well and continue cooking for few more minutes until a thick sauce is nicely smothered on every eggplant chunk. Cook until all the water is evaporated.
8. Now add fresh basil leaves, mix it once and switch off the heat.
9. Thai Basil Eggplant is ready to serve with some freshly cooked Jasmine or Basmati Rice.

Mmmmm!

Asian noodles with Basil

This is a yummy recipe with great deal of influence from Thai /Indo-China region. For this recipe I have used Vegetable and 10 grain noodles from my local organic store. You can choose your own noodles and I think this recipe will turn out as delicious.

Ingredients ( For 2 )

- 4 rounds of noodles or 3oo gms

- 1 small red onion, sliced long

- 1 medium sized green pepper, sliced long

-  1 tsp garlic paste

- 1 tsp ginger paste

- 1 tbsp chill sauce ( adjust per your preference)

- 1 tsp tamrind water ( soak 1 tsp tamrind in water for 10 mins, rub it and use only water) or 1/2 tsp of tamrind paste

- 1 tsp sugar

- salt to taste

- 2 tsp of soya paste or thick dark soya sauce

- 1 tbsp of chopped frsh basil leaves

- 1 tbsp cooking oil

Steps

-  Boil the noodles per instuctions on your noodle bag. Add few drops of oil in the boiling water to keep the noodles from sticking

- Heat the wok and add cooking oil. When the oil is hot add ginger and garlic and constantly stir it to preent any sticking or overheating.

- Once you smell the garlic-ginger oil, add red onions and cook it for few minutes until they are tender

- Now add soya sauce, tamrind water, sugar, salt and chilli sauce. Cook it for few minutes

- Add green peppers, mix it well and cook for a 2 minutes. Ensure that you don't over cook it, I like my peppers green and crunchy.

- Add basil, mix it.

- Add noodles now and gently mix it with veggies. Ensure that you don't break the noodles.

- Cook for few minutes, give it a gentle stir to ensure that its  not sticking to the wok.

- Yummy asian noodles are ready.

- Serve it in a bowl  and enjoy it hot!