Thai basil eggplant recipe

Here's a good easy recipe, that is different and delicious. It's great with fresh eggplant and basil. I have fresh basil because I bought a plant. Unfortunately I had to buy the eggplant at  the grocery store. If there was a farmers' market nearby, I might have found eggplant there. There's a list of area farmers' markets on the upper right side of this blog.

Fried Thai basil eggplant

1 tablespoon oil

2 -3 garlic cloves, minced

1 big  or 2 small eggplant cut irregular

1 tablespoon sugar

1 bunch basil, washed and stems removed

2 chile peppers finely chopped or other hot peppers

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Cut eggplant into uniform irregular shapes. Heat oil in pan and cook garlic until lightly browned. Add eggplant, 1/2 cup water cover and simmer 5 minutes, until eggplant becomes translucent. Add more water as needed. Stir in sugar and fish or soy sauce. Turn off the heat and add the basil, stirring gently. Serve with rice.

Swiss chard heaven

What a strange spring it has been. Most of our garden is doing well, but the peas never came up, even after planting the second time. One word, moles. I picked our first batch of Swiss chard, young leaves. It was so tender and delicious, just heated with a bit of water and salt and pepper. Here's my favorite Swiss chard recipe.

Swiss Chard
olive oil
1/4 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 tsp. dried crushed red pepper, to taste
1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed and chopped

2 Tablespoons water
salt and pepper, to taste

Saute the onion, garlic and red pepper. Then add the rest of the ingredients and heat on medium heat for 10 minutes. As a variation, add substitute 1 tablespoon of water for vinegar and add smoked turkey or ham pieces.

Asparagus aplenty

Last year, Ken planted peas in March and then planted a second batch in April so started picking them about this time. This year, after 2 plantings, nothing, nada. Something is eating the seeds, possibly moles. Anybody have any mole evacuation techniques?
We've been picking asparagus for 3 weeks. My favorite way to prepare it is to roll the spears in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill it. Here's another tasty treat with asparagus:

Appetizer
Ham and Swiss, asparagus spirals. Pre-fry spears in olive oil, lay on a slice of ham and cheese, dollop with Dijon mustard and roll up with the asparagus in the middle. Slice into spirals 1-1/2 inches wide. Dip in seasoned bread crumbs, insert toothpick to hold each spiral together, and fry.