My Thai Supper

       To me, this was all worth blogging home about. My children and their shrieks of protest fell deaf upon my ears. "So what!" I said, "This is what's for supper, you'll be hungry. This is my meal and you are welcome to enjoy it with me." I ignored any further derogatory remarks and sheltered, pampered, small mindedness that reaked from their mouths. Instead, I savored the beautiful aroma of chopped basil, garlic, and fresh ginger, and took the privilege of licking my fingers.

        As with most recipes caught and made on a whim, I didn't have a few of the ingredients. Also, since my children were going to eat this I didn't want too much heat. And the Peanut Sauce? Maybe that was a bit overkill, but when you do this so seldom, do it all!

  My proportions are as follows:

•  5 or 6  small eggplant sliced about 1/4'' thick
• 1 sweet onion chopped
• 2 peppers (sweet) diced large
• 3 or 4 finely minced cloves of garlic
• 1 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• peanut oil for frying

Frying Sauce:

• 1/4 cup soy or Tamari sauce
• 1/4 cup of water 
• 2 TBS natural sugar (or brown sugar)

          Fry eggplant in a bit of oil until soft and somewhat browned. Separately fry the peppers and onions until just translucent or before. Last and quickly the garlic and red pepper. I held off adding the frying sauce at this point as I didn't want it over-cooked or cold.

         Meanwhile I cooked my noodles, I just used  half whole grain  and half white pasta . There is probably an oriental noodle that would be much better.

       In the middle of all this I made my Peanut Ginger Sauce:

• 1 cup of natural peanut butter
• approx. 1 cup of water 
• 1/3 cup of soy sauce
•  1/3 cup of lime juice
•  2 TBS minced ginger
•  3/4 TBS natural sugar
•  1 or 2 cloves pressed through a garlic press( thank you, Sarah!)
• a sorry pile of of chopped green onions

 

      Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until the peanut butter dissolves. I added a little more water as it kept getting thicker and thicker.
     This is the nicest that this sauce looked. And after applied to the noodles things looked worse but tasted great!

     Noodles are done. Peanut sauce is ready. Now with the vegetables back on the heat, I added the frying sauce and cooked it down stirring in the chopped basil.

        I decided that adding the peanut sauce to the noodles at the last minute would help with it all getting too thick to mix together.

        And, you know, my kids even enjoyed it. Bryon, a super sport, said that I could make it again. Maybe the kids would never order it again, but I sure will. It never hurts to try cooking something different or trying something new.