Late summer is a great time to score on eggplant before their seasonal harvest poops out. I bought so much recently that I had three kinds on hand. There were three Chinese eggplants lingering and my default plan these days is to make an easy side dish that essentially involves soaking cooked, soft eggplant in lots of umami-intensive dashi for hours. (I microwave steam the eggplant, though you could char them over a flame, if you like!) Final assembly is literally less than 1 minute and the dish is on the table. My husband couldn't set the table fast enough. Ha! 

 

I hope you make it with eggplants at the markets these days. The new recipe is up at the site along with a recap video for your reference. Check out the dashi-soaked eggplant recipe and keep it in your back pocket (figuratively, that is!) 

 

 

Food prices have been going up and many people are feeling the pinch. My mom, who has always been frugal, shops sales. The other day when I was visiting, she said she really liked my roasted carrots. I was so complimented. Then she handed me a 5-pound bag of carrots that she had scored on steep reduction at Ralph's supermarket. 

What a ridiculous price! The carrots were in great shape. I scrubbed, scored, and cut them into 4-inch lengths, halving thick pieces lengthwise. Then I tossed the carrots in olive oil, sea salt, and whole cumin seed (I used Burlap & Barrel's Wild Mountain Cumin from Afghanistan which has a striking sweet note). Then I roasted the carrots on the upper and lower third of a 450F oven for about 30 minutes, stirring two or three times. My mom's oven is uneven so I switched positions too. Midway, I drizzled on some nuoc mam for umami depth. Before serving, I tossed the carrots in lime juice. She loved them and has enough for a good week. 

 

 

On Monday, I start my final review of the book before it goes to print. It's a 304-pager so it's bigger than my recent books. At this stage, we send early, slightly rough versions of the book out for review. Heidi Swanson, an award-winning vegetarian author and photographer who I've long admired, dove in to cook from the book. I was stoked that she recently did a little something on Instagram about a recipe that she particularly loves and has been riffing on. This is what I enjoy about my work – people taking my recipes to heart and making them their own.