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.
   

Salad Strategy

CSA day! Today we got spinach, white scallions and green garlic (both already chopped off with ends in water in the windowsill, because let's grow more flavor), salsify (which I have never had),  carrots, purple radishes (so pretty! and with greens attached), scarlet turnips, more carrots (there were two bags), and zucchini. It seems early for the zukes. I want asparagus. That's a proper spring vegetable! And I haven't had any yet because it hasn't come in the box and we have enough vegetables that I'm not buying it from the store.

~~~

For lunch, I made a salad. Today's was a simple salad: spinach, chickpeas, radish, carrot, turnip,  feta, dressing. Though I'm coming to think of most of my salads as fancy to present, simple to make. Assembly of a basic components.

These are the building blocks of most of my salads.

• Greens
• Grains
• Lentils/beans (Bonus if you've been marinating them.)
• Raw veggies (Do you have a mandoline? It makes my salads feel very fancy.)
• Cooked veggies (I've been using this recipe quite frequently recently)
• Seasonal fresh fruit
• Fritters (Smashed veggies, falafel, risotto fritters. Meat options would probably go at this level too. Or a fried egg.)
• Cheese
• Dried fruit, whatever the season
• Nuts/seeds (Maybe even a savory granola? Croutons if you can! Crispy beans if you'd rather.)

Choose items from at least three of the categories. Probably not more than five or six of them. Usually I build my salad with things at the top of the list going into the plate first as a base and things at the bottom of the list being added later as toppings. Add a dressing or sauce,

Some winners from this winter's boxes:

• Radishes sliced paper thin + grapefruit segments + goat cheese + rose vinaigrette
• Mixed greens + sliced carrots and radishes + smashed sunchokes + sriracha-mayo-lemon dip
• Mixed greens + marinated lentils + mixed roasted veggies + blue cheese + a homemade balsamic dressing
• Kale + chickpeas + daikon radish + caesar dressing

The Box

In the past 12 hours, I have texted with friends in opposite coastal cities about signing up for a summer CSA box. I have also unloaded the Winter CSA box that my household received today. And signed up for our summer shares of produce, fruit, eggs, bread, and gluten-free bread.

I know not everyone can sign up for a CSA. For one thing, they're not actually available everywhere. There aren't really farmer's markets around our parents, though there may be people selling produce out the back of their pick-up. (I googled anyway and was happily surprised that the state agriculture department lists one in their county. Their website was not operational though.) Second, they're not always affordable, especially for everyone worried about pay in this time of record-splintering time.* (This morning was not cheap for ours. It is 5-6 months of food after all.) That said this is the year to do a CSA, if you are at all thinking about it.

Why CSA this season?

1. Seasonal produce. Support local farmers. You know. The usual reasons.

2. This is the year to both make sure that you are getting fresh produce AND also limit contact while obtaining said produce.

3. You can pick it up outside. My current one involves absolutely zero contact with another human.

4. It shortens trips to grocery stores and farmer's markets. (Once our fruit share kicks in, we'll go to the store for dry goods, dairy, juice, and citrus?) Reduces viral load for everyone.

5. Let's face it, travel ain't happening this CSA season like it would in other seasons. So you don't need to think as much about when you're going to be gone and not use the box. You will be there. You will want to eat.

6. It lets you pre-buy food AND also not take options out of the grocery store for the people who can't afford to stock up.

7. It is the year of home cooking experimentation! Join the fun! What better way than the classic? 

In the spirit of cooking experimentation, I'm going to try to share some of my strategies for cooking through the box. Maybe we can think of it as our virtual cookbook to share comfort foods with friends during this time of distance? Or is that what this blog was originally?

* I get that it's not quite the spirit of supporting the farmer, but I would love if CSA's did a monthly signup that would match WIC/EBT dollars the way some farmer's markets do. Guarantee food delivery throughout the month.