cook the book: ottolenghi's soba noodles with eggplant & mango

Hi there.  It’s been a while!  Life has been busy and interesting lately, and it hasn’t left much time or capacity for blogging.  When I last updated you, I was gearing up a fun Spring weekend.  My sister was going to be making a brief stop in DC en route to Charlottesville for Foxfield, and I was Spotifying my face off in preparation for Sweetlife.  But as we know, sometimes life makes other plans.  Bollie’s eight-hour stopover turned into a forty-eight hour one.  This was no choice of hers (or mine) – but 103.7 degrees, two doctors, three prescriptions, and one emergency room trip later, it was clear the only place she was going was my bed.  Mercifully, she is fine now, and even though we both missed out on our other plans, we enjoyed spending some lazy, uninterrupted time together - a rare treat these days.  (Okay, so I think I liked it more than she did.  And I also secretly loved getting to nurse her back to health.)

After my weekend nursing shift was done, I had a particularly hellacious week of work.  And on Friday, just when I thought I was in the clear, I was on the brink of a (literal) technical disaster.  That morning, my trusty seven-year-old Dell Laptop finally died.  Not a surprise, but frustrating nonetheless.  I thought I had lost a lot of music and pictures from the last time I backed it up, but with some tech savvy, a lot of finagling, and a little bit of luck, I was able to get what I needed, so no love lost.

All of six hours after The Fossil went to Tech Heaven, my iPad fell off the couch, hit my hardwood floor on its funny bone, and shattered.  In utter disbelief, I headed to Apple, where I shared my Genius bar appointment with a sockless, 70-year-old Georgetowner with iPhone issues, and who was also quite taken with our Genius.  His blue-blazer’ed elbow repeatedly nudged my bare forearm, and with a grin and a wink, would ask me, “Isn’t it just so nice to deal with somebody who knows what they’re talking about?”  (Note:  I hate being touched.  Get out of my personal space.)  But I smiled and nodded as I waited for the Genius to finish formatting my replacement, only to charge me some ridiculous sum of money for an outdated model and twenty minutes worth of labor, the latter of which was actually shared with Grandpa Wink-Nudge.  As I was leaving, the Genius said, “May the Fourth be with you.”  Icing on the cake.  

Leaving the store, I did what any other mature adult does when she feels defeated.  I called my mother.  And what did she say?  “You better be careful driving home.”

When it rains, it pours.  (And five minutes later, it did.)

I arrived home feeling tired, clumsy, and a little bit broken.  As I changed out of my wet clothes and collapsed onto the sofa, my apartment’s sweet office manager called to let me know they were about to close, and would I like for him to drop off my present?

Why yes, I would, thank you.  This “present” was a cookbook that I ordered from Amazon.  After months of reading about Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty, I finally bought myself a copy.  I instantly fell in love with the vibrant recipes and stunning photography.  Ottolenghi owns and operates the eponymous London gourmet deli, similar to Balducci’s or Dean and Deluca.  His business model, centered around grab-and-go fare that is casual, healthy, and interesting, lends itself well to an at-home cookbook.  The food is delicious, but simple at that - you won’t find too many long, involved, technically-difficult items.  Plenty is a collection of impeccably-curated recipes centered around real foods like fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy.  It is a vegetarian cookbook written by a carnivore – meant for those who love veggies, but perhaps are a little weirded out by tofu and seitan, and are not willing to forgo meat and fish entirely.  (It is probably not the best choice for vegans - Ottolenghi loves dairy products.)  Interesting ingredient combinations, heavy-handed helpings of fresh herbs, and a Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern focus make Plenty a must-have for anyone who digs unique flavor combinations and isn’t afraid to push the envelope a little.  And, the clearly obsessive-compulsive methodology makes this perfectionist very happy.

In the five days I’ve had Plenty, I’ve made three recipes from it, including this one for soba noodles with eggplant and mango.  Randomly enough, I had all of the ingredients for this recipe on hand on the Day of Disaster, which was the only reason why I chose to make it for dinner that night.  However, it was so good I ended up making it again on Monday.  I know it seems like nothing really goes together, but it really does work!  And it will pick you up from a bad day - guaranteed.

A couple of notes:

• This recipe is vegan, vegetarian, and if made with 100% soba noodles, gluten-free.
• The recipe is very good if eaten immediately, excellent if mixed together and allowed to chill for about an hour, and pretty great still the next day.  However, the mango and eggplant in the "next-day" batch do lose some of their vibrancy, so it may be even better to add those ingredients to the mix right before serving, if you plan on eating it over a couple of days. 
• I fried the eggplant as directed (in a lot of oil) the first time I made it.  The second time, for a healthier version, I tried roasting it in the oven at 450, using only a couple of tablespoons of oil.  To be frank, it's not nearly as good, so I'd recommend frying it.  There's virtually no fat elsewhere in the recipe, so don't sweat it too much.
• The original recipe calls for sunflower oil, but that's a fancy ingredient I don't have, so I used good old canola.  Don't use olive oil - it would probably impart too much flavor on the eggplant.  And what a shame to waste olive oil on something like this, anyway.
• The second time I made it, I used all cilantro instead of cilantro and basil.  All cilantro worked just great; I didn't miss the basil too much.
• I often find that the flavor of raw onions is too potent for me, but these onions are bearable since they get tossed in the dressing.  If yours are particularly strong, you can soak them in water.

Soba noodles with eggplant and mango
Adapted, just barely, from Ottolenghi's Plenty
Serves 6

1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 fresh red chile, finely chopped
1-2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
1 cup canola oil
2 eggplants, cut into 3/4-inch dice
9 ounces soba noodles
2 large ripe mangoes, diced
1 1/2 cups basil leaves, chopped (or Thai basil, but use less)
2 1/2 cups cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced

1.  In a small saucepan gently warm the vinegar, sugar and salt for up to 1 minute, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the garlic, chile and sesame oil.  Allow to cool, then add the lime zest and juice.
2.  Heat up the sunflower oil in a large pan and shallow-fry the eggplant in three or four batches. Once golden brown remove to a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and leave there to drain.
3.  Cook the noodles in boiling salted water, stirring occasionally. They should take 5 to 8 minutes to become tender but still al dente.  Drain and rinse well under running cold water.  Leave to drain again.
4.  In a mixing bowl toss the noodles with the dressing, mango, eggplant, onion, and herbs.  Serve immediately or allow the flavors to mingle for an hour or so.