Recipe - Thai-Style Spicy Eggplant-Mushroom Sauce

One half pound Mushrooms
1 md Shallot
2 md Garlic cloves
One half teaspoon Hunan style red chili paste
1 One half cup Rice milk or milk
substitute
1 pound Eggplant
1 md Red bell pepper
One half cup Chopped asparagus stems
(originally this was peas)
One half cup Fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoon Sugar
One half teaspoon Plum sauce
One half teaspoon Ginger
One fourth cup Veggie stock
2 3 drops toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoon Tapioca flour (see note)

Mince garlic and shallot; quarter mushrooms, dice eggplant into 1inch
cubes and slice red bell pepper into long strips.

In a large frying pan, on medium head add stock and mushrooms. Simmer for
5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and brown. Remove mushrooms and
set aside. In remaining stock add shallot and garlic, sautee for 12
minutes. Add chili paste and milk. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce
heat and simmer on low for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add sugar, plum sauce
and sesame oil (only a few drops! It's amazing the flavor it adds). Add
eggplant, asparagus stems and red bell pepper. Bring mixture back up to a
boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally until eggplant
and asparagus are tender. In the last 5 minutes add mushrooms and fresh
basil leaves.

Serve over grilled polenta (recipe follows) or rice and the steamed
asparagus tips.

Note: When I made this recipe I felt that the sauce was too thin. The
original recipe called for coconut milk and olive oil as the sauce's base.
How I remedied this problem was as follows: I removed all the vegetables
from the pan using a slotted spoon and turned the heat down to the lowest
setting. I placed them in the serving bowl and set aside. In a measuring
cup I added 1/3 cup cold water and 2 heaping teaspoons of tapioca flour
(not pearls). Once this was thoroughly mixed I poured it into the sauce
while stirring with the slotted spoon. In less than a minute the sauce had
thickened very nicely. I then poured the sauce into the bowl over the
vegetables and served. It was pleasantly spicy (go light on the red chili
paste if you dislike REALLY hot foods) and filling.

Note2: if you wanted to be more authentic you could try adding some
coconut extract...

From: J. Ari Kornfeld ari@sibari.isl.sri.com. Fatfree Digest [Volume 8
Issue 54] June 15, 1994. Formatted by Sue Smith, S.Smith34,
TXFT40A@Prodigy.com using MMCONV

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/fatfreex.zip