Roasted Aubergine, Mango & Soba Noodle Salad

Sad to say that my posts have been a bit thin on the ground over the last week. Oh, I've been cooking plenty, but I have been trying to get used to a new camera and all of my photos so far have been diabolical, rendering any potential posts completely unblogworthy.

Perhaps I should go back a bit. A few months ago my neighbour, Alli of Pease Pudding and The Gourmet Gannet cooking school, organised a photography workshop with Sean Shadbolt for some enthusiastic Auckland bloggers. To a woman, we were all greatly inspired, no-one more so than I to discover that there was a good deal more to my little point and shoot camera than just turning it on and off. Talk about the scales falling from my eyes - all of a sudden a whole new world of possibility (albeit it still a rather confusing one) opened up before me. The terms aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance had previously meant nothing to me, and the notion that these were things that I could manipulate even on my point and shoot was a complete revelation.

Fast forward a little now. You know that I have just recently been overseas for several weeks, and having been smitten by the photography bug I decided, since I would be passing through Singapore on the way home, to invest in my first DSLR camera. So ever since I got back, I have been playing with this new toy - exploring it, and trying to get some understanding of what different settings will achieve. The results have not been flash. Until yesterday - I went out for a few hours with my camera, took a whole lot of photos, rushed home to download them, and actually felt reasonably happy with my results. They weren't fantastic photos, but I did feel as though a penny had dropped somewhere, and I could see and understand the outcome of different things I had done.

Buoyed up by my new-found confidence, I got cooking and photographing and these are the results. Not brilliant photos by any stretch of the imagination - there is such a long way to go. However, I can safely say that since I started my blog, just over two years ago (gosh, I actually just realised my blogoversary slipped by a couple of weeks ago) these are the first photos I have really felt happy with, and certainly the first photos that I haven't had to edit in anyway other than a tiny bit of cropping here or there.

As for the food, waiting for me when I returned from overseas was a nice stack of new cookbooks that I'd ordered before I went away. Amongst them, Plenty from Yottam Ottolenghi which I had been wanting for ages. As I leafed through the book, one of the first recipes that jumped out at me was Soba Noodles with Eggplant and Mango. I love soba noodles, and was intrigued by the combination of aubergine and mango. Whats more, it may be winter here but I would still rather eat some kind of salad any day of the week, than a stew or a casserole. Of course I don't mind a braised lamb shank or a really good osso bucco on a rare occasion, but in the main I am just not a stewy, casseroley kind of girl.

I loved this dish. Even though this is not a hot dish, the aubergine provides enough "meatiness" and substance to compensate. I love the lightness of soba noodles - there is nothing about them that weighs you down - and they are a great vehicle for carrying flavour. The mango is tangy and refreshing, and did indeed complement the aubergine beautifully. All of this is bathed in a bright, tangy dressing which hits all the right notes of sweetness and sharpness, with a little kick of chilli heat. I ate this as a meal on its own - it would be perfect for a light lunch, or would also be great as a starter to a larger meal. On that subject, a note about the quantities - the original recipe claimed to serve 6. Since I was making this only for myself, I halved the recipe (which in theory should therefore have served 3) and anticipated that I would have some leftover for the next day. As it turned out, I ate the lot! I didn't have anything else though - this was my dinner - and if I had been serving this as an appetiser I think it easily would have delivered 3 portions.

Roasted Aubergine, Mango & Soba Noodle Salad Recipe

Adapted from recipe in Plenty, by Yottam Ottolenghi

Vegetarian

Makes 3 appetisers, 2 light meals or 1 generous main

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

Dressing:

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small hot red chilli, finely chopped

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 lime, grated zest & juice

1 medium aubergine, cut into 1cm (1/2 inch) cubes

sunflower oil (or other neutral-flavoured oil)

90g-100g (3 to 4 oz) soba noodles

1/2 large mango, flesh diced

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup coriander (cilantro), chopped

Begin by making the dressing: Put the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt into a small saucepan, and heat gently for about a minute - just until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat, add the garlic, chilli and sesame oil, and then set aside to cool. Once the dressing has cooled completely add the freshly grated lime zest and juice.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F). Line a shallow baking dish with parchment paper and set aside. Cut the aubergine into cubes, add them to the paper lined baking dish, drizzle with oil, and toss well to coat.

Once the oven is hot, put the tray of aubergines into the oven, and bake until golden brown and cooked through - this will take about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. (Note the original recipe called for the aubergine to be fried, but why stand over a frying pan, when you can let the oven do all the work. I think baking them in the oven also uses less oil, which is not really a big deal to me, but it might be to you.)

Now onto the noodles. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salt liberally. (Note: My packet of soba noodles stated that salting the water is not necessary, but I do it anyway, and I note that Yottam does too.) Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook until al dente - mine only took 4 minutes, but yours may take a minute or two longer depending on your brand of noodles. Once the noodles are cooked, drain and rinse them well under cold running water. Shake well to remove as much of the water as possible, and then spread them out on a clean tea towel to dry.

Transfer the dry noodles to a large mixing bowl, add the dressing (you will probably only use about half of it), the aubergine, mango, onion, and two-thirds of the coriander. Toss together well.

At this point you can either serve the salad immediately, or allow it to stand for a couple of hours and let all the flavours infuse. If you do allow it to stand, you will probably want to add some of the leftover dressing before you serve it. Pile it up onto a platter, sprinkle over the remaining coriander, and serve.

I hope you'll give this one a try - it's definitely on my repeat list.

I am sharing this post at Presto Pasta Nights which will next week be hosted by Debbi Does Dinner ...

I am also sharing this at Let's Do Brunch hosted by Chaya at My Sweet & Savoury.

Also this post is entered in the July Culinary Smackdown. The challenge this month has been laid down by Eggplant To Go, and the theme ingredient is .... eggplant.