Thai green curry with chicken and Thai eggplant

Enhance the store-bought paste: finely julienne Thai basil and pound to a paste; pound in a little extra grachai, then fermented shrimp paste, then the green curry paste, until mixed.

Bring a portion of the coconut milk to a full boil, add the curry paste and saute a few minutes, stirring so it does not stick and burn, until the coconut oil separates and the paste fries in it.

Cook another minute or so, then stir in bite-sized chicken thigh pieces.

Add the rest of the coconut milk and some chicken stock; season early with palm sugar and fish sauce.

Bruise, tear and add makrut lime leaves without the center stem; simmer about 10 minutes until the chicken is fork tender.

Variation: for chicken breast, marinate the bite-sized pieces in fish sauce and add them only at the end, cooking a couple of minutes.

Once the chicken is no longer raw, taste the sauce for aroma and flavor; if weak, saute extra curry paste in a little neutral oil a few minutes, loosen with coconut milk, stock or water, and stir in.

Add the eggplant and keep pushing it under for the first minute so it does not brown; cook about two to three minutes in total, until a fork goes through with slight resistance, and turn off the heat.

Stir in the peppers and Thai basil and let the residual heat wilt them, keeping the peppers crisp.

Taste for saltiness and adjust with fish sauce; serve with rice.