Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango

A few of the things my husband said regarding Ottolenghi's Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango:

'This dish is preposterous ... but it's so good.'

'That eggplant one astonished me.  I had no hopes for it.'

And there you go, a truly bizarre dish that is a great success!  To be honest, the main reason I decided to make it was because we had a pile of fresh basil in the fridge, and I was needing to use it before it went bad.  (You know how sometimes you look for certain recipes just to use up a particular ingredient that you'd really rather not just stare at while it goes bad...)  Anyway, as I copied out the ingredients we needed to get from the store, and later as I began to cook it all up in the kitchen, I had a few twinges of guilt.  I knew this was not something that Michael would have picked for dinner ... ever ... in a million years.  But I thought it looked good. 

For starters, Michael claims to loathe mangoes (odd man), and he also doesn't typically go for any sort of noodley-dish that is not steaming hot.  Also, he does not harbor any fondness for tofu.  (Ottolenghi suggests adding fried tofu to the dish if serving it as a main course, which I did — and which Emilia, for one, would not touch.  Again, 'Mia don't like it!')

Anyway, this is what I love about the Ottolenghi cookbooks.  The recipe for Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango comes from the brand-spanking-new and hot off the presses Plenty.  Plenty is a completely innovative vegetarian cookbook with a strong emphasis on just that: vegetables.  The book is absolutely gorgeous — fresh, diverse, and never boring.   It is filled with the oddest (when combined) assortment of fresh ingredients that, even if you may have a few doubts going in, always turn out spectacularly well.  Michael's assessment is spot-on, if I do say so myself.

I suppose I should tell you that I made a few minor changes to the recipe.  For some reason red chili peppers are next to impossible to come by in the Pacific Northwest (or at least at Whole Foods and PCC) — I've no idea why.  So I used the only other small red pepper I could find. I think it was called a cherry pepper, which is not hot ... at all.  But I figured that was alright since I was trying to get our 2 year old to eat it as well.  Also, I only had a teeny bottle of sunflower oil, so I didn't want to wipe the whole thing out frying up eggplant.  As we all know, eggplant sucks up oil, which is why I switched over to olive oil.  I also used regular granulated sugar as I've no idea what caster sugar is. (I should really look into this as all their recipes call for it...) And finally, I used less than half the amount of red onion suggested.  Sometimes red onion can be a bit too overpowering, and I was very happy with the result.
 

Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango

120ml rice vinegar
40g caster sugar
½ tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ fresh red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
220ml sunflower oil
2 aubergines (eggplant), cut into 2cm dice
250g soba noodles
1 large ripe mango, cut into 1cm dice or into 5mm thick strips
40g basil leaves, chopped
40g coriander leaves, chopped
½ red onion, very thinly sliced

Start with the dressing: In a small saucepan heat the vinegar, salt, and sugar for about a minute, just until the sugar dissolves.  Remove from the heat and add the garlic, chili, and sesame oil.  Set aside to cool and then add the lime zest and juice.

In a large saute/frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat.  Cook the eggplant in a few batches.  Once nicely browned, toss into a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt, and leave to drain.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add salt and then the noodles.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, the noodles should be al dente.  Drain and rinse well under the coldest running water.  Shake off the excess water and then set aside on a clean cloth to dry a bit.

In a large bowl, mix the noodles, dressing, mango, eggplant, half of the herbs, and the onion.  It can now be left for 1 to 2 hours, if you'd like.  When ready to serve, add the remaining herbs, give it a good stir, and dish up.  (Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.  Ebury Press 2010.)