Eggplant Kottu Roti

 Kottu is a Sri Lankan street dish made with godamba roti stir fried with curry and eggs. I discovered it through Kottu House, a now closed restaurant[1] on the LES, which my coworkers and I frequented when our coworking space was around the corner. Even after we moved offices to another neighborhood, a couple of us would periodically venture back to get our favorites. My go to was the Garden Kottu: an eggplant, chiles, and tomato sauce curry.

In the spring, I googled for recipes but didn't find quite what I was looking for, and some of the ones that appeared more authentic and reasonable had ingredients I didn't have on hand: pandan leaves, Sri Lankan curry powder, curry leaves, godamba roti. Normally, I'd be up for the adventure of tracking them all down. This is New York City, after all. But with the quarantine, we were limiting grocery shopping trips, and I wasn't going to venture into a store unless I was stocking up.

A couple of recipes mentioned Indian paratha as a substitute for roti. It's flaky like Sri Lankan roti. I grabbed a pack of frozen paratha from Trader Joe's and stuck it in the freezer. Last week, I bought a giant eggplant from the farmer's market and decided it was finally time to try to make kottu. I ended up combining four recipes, using some substitutions that they suggested (e.g. garam masala as the curry powder). This is clearly not an authentic recipe, yet the taste was a reasonable approximation of what I remembered. It was milder than the ones at Kottu House (the mild there was approximately the same spiciness as medium at many Thai restaurants). Next time I'd add another hot pepper or more curry powder or both. I'll continue to experiment with it.

While I made this with the Garden Kottu in mind, it was a good way to use up a variety of CSA veggies that were lingering in the fridge. The set of veggies isn't a precise prescriptions. Feel free to mix it up. You can even do a coconut milk based curry if you'd like.

[1] Given my last post, it seems like a trend of quarantine is me attempting to replicate favorite foods from defunct NYC restaurants.

 Ingredients

• Fennel seeds
• Green coriander (my cilantro went to seed, so I channeled Samin Nosrat)
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• a bit of red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• powdered ginger since I was out of fresh
• garam masala
• 2 jalapenos deseeded and diced (could have done 3 for this quantity veggies)
  
• 1 green pepper deseeded and diced
• 1 turnip julienned
• 3ish cups eggplant cubed
• some thinly sliced cabbage (my pan was full, so I didn't use much)
  
• 1 tomato diced
• the end of a tube of tomato paste
•  2 Tbsp soy sauce
• oil
  
•  2.5 eggs (I did 2 eggs + an egg white as I had egg whites on hand), beaten
  
• 2.5 paratha (sri lankan roti is traditional)

Method

1. If using frozen paratha, cook in frying pan per directions on package. Meanwhile, chop veggies.
2. Scramble eggs in a bit of oil. Set eggs and paratha to the side.
3. Add a bit more oil to the pan. Toast fennel seeds. Add coriander. For less than a minute.
4. Add the leeks and red onion, garlic, jalapenos, and bell pepper. Saute for a couple minutes.
5. Add eggplant and saute until it's softened.
6. Add garam masala, tomato, tomato paste, and soy sauce. Let the tomato get juicy and create a bit of sauce.
7. Add turnip and cabbage. Cook until everything looks almost done.
8. Slice the paratha (medium sized, shouldn't be too small). Add paratha and scrambled eggs to the pan with everything else. Toss and cook for a couple more minutes.
9. Remove from heat and serve.