What To Do with Thai Eggplant?

With the weather cooling, my eggplants seem to be happier and more productive.  I ventured away from growing the traditional eggplants this year and picked up Thai eggplants at the farmer's market.  I had never tried a Thai eggplant, but thought it would be fun to grow something different.  So I did.

 

I find them cute, but what to do with them?  So far I have used them in stir fry and roasted them.  I find them less bitter and less seedy than the large purple eggplants.  I do tend to pick them when they are young, if you wait too long they will be a cute ball filled with hard seeds!

Tonight I wanted to try something new.  I found a recipe for Thai Eggplants in a Peanut Masala at the FatFree Vegan Kitchen and I love peanuts so it sounded like a great recipe.

As I assembled the ingredients I realized that I was lacking cumin seeds and I didn't have fresh, frozen, or dried coconut, but I did have coconut milk.  I was also lacking tamarind concentrate and ended up substituting lemon juice.  Here's my adjusted ingredients:

There are a lot of ingredients, but it is mostly just throwing them into the food processor and making a paste to cook the eggplant and chickpeas in.  Here's what Thai eggplants look like cooking:

For some reason it took FOREVER for my eggplants to soften.  I lost track of total cooking time.  I kept setting the timer for five minutes, stirring, adding water, and cooking some more.  Here's my Thai eggplants in a peanut masala:

Yummy!  The sauce is very tasty even with my substitutions and missing ingredients.  Now I don't want frost to come and take away my Thai eggplants.  I want to make more of this!  Next time I think I'll put it in the crock pot and let it cook away for hours.

Check out what others are making from their harvests at The Gardener of Eden's Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.