Miso Eggplant Stir-Fry
Miso Eggplant Stir-Fry
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time! I’m sure many people are stuck at home so I thought I would get back to sharing some recipes. After the pandemic started, I decided to go back for some time to my hometown in North Carolina. Every time I go home, I try to learn more of Tanuki mama’s cooking. When we went to the Asian grocery store last week, she decided to pick up some Asian eggplant and showed me how to make one of her signature dishes, miso eggplant stir-fry! This particular recipe was taught by Tanuki mama’s aunt twenty years ago. It is amazing how recipes can get passed down through households and generations. I hope I can also continue to pass on these home recipes.
🍆The Key Ingredient is the Asian Eggplant!
I personally love eggplant, but I always find that it is a bit difficult to decide what to do with it. The key to making this recipe work is the Asian eggplant. These eggplants are usually skinnier and less thick than the ones that you might typically find at the regular grocery store. They have a milder taste and I find it easier to eat. https://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t–35511/asian-eggplant.asp Here’s a link with more information about this eggplant! To find them, it’s best to check an Asian grocery store.
🇯🇵All you need are some Japanese pantry staples:
For this miso eggplant stir-fry, it uses some staple ingredients for Japanese home cooking. These are miso paste, mirin, sake, dashi (fish broth) powder, and bonito flakes (katsuobushi). All of these items should be available at the local Asian grocer. If it’s difficult to find, I recommend asking the store owner or ordering from Amazon. With these ingredients, it’s also possible to make recipes like Soy milk white miso soup: a triple soy packed recipe or Simmered yuba (bean curd) with edamame.
🌱How to adapt for vegetarians and vegans:
This dish easily becomes vegetarian or vegan. The two animal products are the dashi (fish broth) powder and the optional bonito flakes. Experimenting with a vegetable based broth, or simply omitting it completely should still make a delicious miso eggplant stir-fry. Additionally, feel free to add other ingredients like green onions as a garnish on top!
Miso Eggplant Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants (Asian eggplant works best, approx. 370 grams)
- 1.5 tbsp miso paste
- 1.5 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1/2 tsp dashi powder (can be omitted if vegetarian)
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 80 ml water (add more as needed during cooking)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil (other oils are also an option!)
- grated ginger (as desired)
- katsuobushi aka. bonito flakes (as desired, can be omitted if vegetarian)
Instructions
- Take the two eggplants and cut them into rough sized pieces about 4-5 centimeters thick. Works best to cut at a slight angle while spinning the eggplant.
- Soak the cut eggplant in water for at least 5 minutes. This gets rid of some bitterness and itchyness (I tend to feel a bit itchy in my mouth when eating eggplant if not soaked prior to cooking)
- While soaking the eggplant, mix the miso paste, mirin, sake, dashi powder, sugar, and water. Set it aside in a separate bowl.
- On medium heat, pour sesame oil into a frying pan.
- Drain the eggplants and put the eggplants into the hot frying pan.
- Saute the eggplants until the eggplants become more discolored and partly cooked.
- Pour the miso mixture into the frying pan with the eggplants. Mix and saute it so that the sauce is coating all of the eggplants.
- The eggplants are done when the liquid mixture has mostly evaporated and they have become soft and cooked. If it needs more cooking time, feel free to raise the temperature of the pan or add some more water.
- Turn off the heat and mix in freshly grated ginger and top with bonito flakes as desired
- Enjoy!
