Dilip's Pud Makua Yow (Basil Eggplant) Variant with Raw Peanuts and a Nod to His Just-Starting-To-Eat-Solid-Foods Sweetie Potato Avoca-can-do Baby

I had five round Thai eggplants that I had to use before they spoiled. I had never purchased a Thai eggplant, and thought I'd make something like the classic Pud Makua Yow (see, for example, the recipe at thaitable.com), eggplant cooked with garlic and, just before serving, fresh Thai basil. I didn't have hot chili pepper on hand (and my nursing wife has had a preference for milder foods, anyway), but just this weekend had planted some Italian basil (no Thai basil), so I gave it a whirl.

I prepared the five eggplants by cutting into thick 1/4+ " slices and then halving. I took four garlic cloves and sliced them thinly. In lieu of hot pepper, I took about a quarter sweet yellow bell pepper and cut it into 1/2" squares. Customizing the dish to my vegan sensibility, I took a tub of seitan and cut it into matchsticks, perhaps 1" long by less than 1/4" thick and wide. I brought a little lemon sage (which was given to me as Greek oregano, but I think it's lemon sage) and about 8-10 large leaves of basil in from my garden and just, for now, washed them clean.

I heated the garlic and seitan in a saucepan with a little garlic grapeseed oil over medium heat, nearly constantly stirring in this non-nonstick (!) pan. As the garlic and seitan started showing a little bit of brown color in about 3 or 4 minutes, I added the eggplant and 2/3 cup of water, then reduced the heat to low and cooked, covered, for about 7-10 minutes till the eggplant became a bit clear and soft. I then mixed in the lemon sage and, coarsely hand cut into maybe 1" pieces, the basil, as well as some crushed red pepper and a bit of soy sauce. I stirred briefly then served.

I would have served with rice, but my wife had picked up some interesting looking vegan foccacia at the Carrboro Farmer's Market this past Saturday, and I wanted to use it up. So I heated the bread and served it to the side.

Last week we started feeding my almost six-month-old baby solid foods! We started with avocado, which went well for three days. We introduced lentils (the water that the lentils were cooked in), which she didn't seem to like, on Saturday, and today tried sweet potato mixed with breast milk, which she also didn't take to - at least on first try. So we had some avocado cut and ready to be finished, and most of a sweet potato that was baked this morning, and included them in tonight's dinner as a gentle reminder of her. It was a good dinner!