Bluefish with Basil Sauce and Japanese Eggplant with Green Beans and Thai Red Curry

The weekly haul from the CSA has really picked up in the past few weeks.  Combine that with me being out of town, and that means a backlog of veggies that need to be cooked.  I was very happy to find a few heads of fresh garlic waiting for me; I think fresh garlic has a sweetness that is not even closed to matched by most store-bought.  We also had a few bunches of basil, about a pint of mixed beans (green, wax, and some purple kind I've never seen before), and a lot of Japanese eggplant that needed to be used sooner rather than later.

I'm not a huge eggplant fan generally, but I think I now prefer the Japanese to conventional.  The long, slender shape allows it to simply be cut into quarters and stir fried, as in this recipe for Japanese Eggplant with Haricot Verts and Thai Red Curry.  To adapt this for farm share ingredients, specifically normal sized beans and not haricot verts, I just added the beans about 30 seconds after the eggplant and not the whole 2-3 minutes.  Here are the eggplant, beans, garlic, and ginger pre-prep:

I was in the mood for seafood, and wild caught bluefish for $9 a pound jumped out at me.  This is not the most delicate of fishes, but it holds up to high heat for quick cooking, and works with with a sauce.  It is also wild caught, which I like, and not at risk of being overfished anytime soon.  I've seen it on the menu at Tackle Box and Blue Ridge in DC, both affordable seafood spots that emphasize sustainability.

Anyway, I used a big clove of fresh CSA garlic and a head of CSA basil to make Broiled Bluefish with Basil Sauce.  The sauce couldn't be easier - just throw everything in a blender.

While this isn't necessarily in the same vein as miso/curry eggplant and green beans, the both worked well together.  I think some ginger could've been added to the basil sauce to bring them together a little more, but both were very fresh and delicious.  The miso/curry prep was great, and I want to use it again for other veggies.