I got this recipe from a friend at work, who just returned from a month in Guam visiting relatives.  He found it on the threetastes.com  website and said it is very authentic and just the sort of dish they eat regularly in the islands.  Since we had a bunch of eggplant come off our garden plants, I decided to give it a try.  It has a nice creamy texture due to the roasted eggplant and coconut milk, but also quite a bit of spice and a little tartness, all of which really work together.

Step 1: mix together

~1/2 cup coconut milk
~a half of an onion, thinly sliced
~1-2 thai chilis (I used serranos) sliced lengthwise
~juice of one lemon (add sparingly, start with half a lemon’s juice and taste before adding more – it should be slightly tart but not pucker-inducing)
~salt and pepper to taste

Step 2: Grill the eggplant over a charcoal grill until the outsides are nearly charred and the eggplants are very soft.  Unfortunately it was raining too hard for me to grill, so I sliced the eggplant in half lengthwise and roasted them in the oven. It worked for the recipe, but the grill flavors would have been nice, so grill them if you can!

Step 3: When the eggplant are cool enough to touch, remove the charred skin from them and slice into bite sized cubes. (You’ll notice in the first photo that my dish has the eggplant skins in them – yeah the oven didn’t get hot enough to make the skins removable, another reason to grill baby grill!) Mix into the coconut milk mixture and taste and correct for salt. At this point you can remove the sliced chilis, or leave them in if you like a hot surprise in the dish.

Serve and enjoy! I think this would go well with grilled fish and fresh fruit, or try some other authentic recipes from the three tastes website!